Quantum fluctuation effects on nuclear fragment formation

Multifragmentation in Au+Au collisions is investigated at incident energies in the range 100–400 MeV per nucleon by means of a recently developed quantal Langevin model. The inclusion of quantum fluctuations enhances the average multiplicity of intermediate mass fragments, especially in central collisions. This is mainly because the excitation energies of fragments are reduced due to the quantal behavior of intrinsic specific heat.