Time scales in fragmentation

The problem of fragmentation of excited finite systems is explored in the frame of classical molecular dynamics experiments of two-dimensional Lennard-Jones drops. The main objective of this work is to get information about the relative Value of the relevant characteristic time scales (CTS) for this kind of process. We investigate the CTS for fragment formation, the stabilization of the radial flux, and the internal ''temperature.'' It is found that the asymptotic fragments are realized early in phase space, when the system is still dense, by the time the radial flux attains its asymptotic value. It is also shown that the temperature of the system during the breakup is quite homogenous with respect to the expected profile if local thermal equilibration takes place. Special emphasis is put on the investigation of the time scale of stabilization of the statistical properties of the mass spectrum, which is related to the kind of information carried by the asymptotic fragments.