Microcanonical simulation for the decay of very hot nuclei

The microcanonical Metropolis sampling method is used to simulate the nuclear fragmentation at excitation energies between ∼10 MeV and 2 GeV. Contrary to the usual canonical description of compound nucleus decay the total energy, momentum, mass and charge of the system are strictly conserved quantities. No artificial heat bath is needed. The calculated mass distribution, charge dispersion and energy-spectra are in good agreement with the data of nuclear fragmentations induced by highly energetic protons. The possible characteristics of the statistical decay of the exotic nucleus are discussed