Thermodynamics of nuclei in thermal contact

The thermodynamic properties of a dinuclear system are studied with the methods of statistical mechanics. A schematic model calculation shows that the excitation-energy transfer proceeds in energy steps of considerable amount which are subject to large fluctuations. As a consequence, thermal averaging is strong enough to assure the application of thermodynamical methods for describing the energy exchange between the two nuclei in contact. In particular, thermal averaging justifies the definition of a nuclear temperature. The division of excitation energy in thermal equilibrium is derived for several analytical descriptions of the level density.