The Scaling Function of Nuclear Matter

In two recent publications [1, 2], the EOS Collaboration has presented the first model independent determination of four critical exponents for nuclear matter based on the analysis of exclusive nuclear multifragmentation data obtained in 1 GeV/nucleon collisions of gold on a carbon target at the Lawrence Berkeley Bevalac. These studies were motivated in part by the striking resemblance nuclear multifragmentation data has with many aspects of critical phenomena [3, 4, 5]. In reference [2], the critical exponent σ was determined assuming that the multifragmentation data would exhibit the type of scaling expected for systems possessing critical behavior. In this paper, we demonstrate that this is indeed the case, and we determine for the first time the scaling function of nuclear matter.