In standard statistical approaches on nuclear disassembly, the fragmentation pattern is decided at the “freeze-out” volume, generally taken to be 3–8 times the normal nuclear volume. In this communication, we show that the dynamics of the initially produced fragments may allow pairs of fragments to come well within the nuclear force range resulting in possible recombination in the exit channel. The fused complex may undergo further fragmentation if sufficiently excited. This alters the fragmentation pattern and the associated physical observables considerably. The ambiguity so found calls for critical reanalysis of the different statistical approaches to nuclear multifragmentation.

• Received 24 September 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.71.011601