Disassembly of hot classical charged drops

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Abstract
The disassembly of hot classical charged drops containing ∼230 and 130 particles is studied with the molecular dynamics method. The strength of the Coulomb repulsion is chosen so that these drops have a binding energy formula similar to that of nuclei. The phase diagram of neutral matter, obtained by switching off the Coulomb force, is also similar to that of nuclear matter. In addition to the total-vaporization, fragmentation, and evaporation modes of the disassembly of neutral drops, the charged drops also break by multiple and binary fission. The liquid-gas phase transition plays an important role in the multiple fission of expanding charged liquid drops. There also appears to be a window in the initial conditions in which binary fission followed by a density oscillation is the dominant mode of breakup. The multiple and binary fission breakups are due to the Coulomb forces, and they yield more massive clusters with relatively few small clusters with ∼10 particles. The higher energy fragmentation and total vaporization modes are not significantly influenced by the Coulomb forces. They are primarily due to the liquid-gas transition, and their yields decrease almost monotonically with the number of particles in the cluster.