Evidence of critical behavior in the disassembly of nuclei with A similar to 36

A wide variety of observables indicate that maximal fluctuations in the disassembly of hot nuclei with Asimilar to36 occur at an excitation energy of 5.6+/-0.5 MeV/nucleon and temperature of 8.3+/-0.5 MeV. Associated with this point of maximal fluctuations are a number of quantitative indicators of apparent critical behavior. The associated caloric curve does not appear to show a flattening such as that seen for heavier systems. This suggests that, in contrast to similar signals seen for liquid-gas transitions in heavier nuclei, the observed behavior in these very light nuclei is associated with a transition much closer to the critical point.