Impact parameter dependence of the specific entropy and the light particle yield in relativistic heavy ion collisions

The connection between the fragment yield and the associated specific entropy of particles produced in the course of a relativistic heavy ion collision is studied within the cascade approach. The essential impact parameter dependence of the fragment yield indicates that the specific entropy increases with impact parameter and that the critical density of the system decay is the larger the more central the collision process is. The results show that the thermodynamical equilibrium limit for the entropy production is not reached for such heavy systems as Nb+Nb at 400 MeV/nucleon and that the finite size effects and the dynamical freeze-out process are dominant factors in determining the cluster yield