2000/11/13 by Thomas Pattard, Jan M. Rost
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.atom-ph #physics.gen-ph
published as Foundations of Physics 31, 535 (2001)
arxiv created 2000/11/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
The threshold law for N-body fragmentation under dipole forces is formulated. It emerges from the energy dependence of the normalization of the correlated continuum wave function for N fragments. It is shown that the dipole threshold law plays a key role in understanding all threshold fragmentation phenomena since it links the classical threshold law for long-range Coulomb interactions to the statistical law for short-range interactions. Furthermore, a tunnelling mechanism is identified as the common feature which occurs for all three classes of interactions, short-range, dipole and Coulomb.