FRAGMENTS OF MATTER FROM A MAXIMUM-ENTROPY VIEWPOINT

After introducing the formalism of maximum entropy and reviewing alternative approaches for fragment size statistics, this paper derives a general distribution law (similar in form to the Bose-Einstein statistics) and applies it to distributions observed in rock mining, exploding metallic shells, shattered crystal pieces, droplets in spray, atomic or molecular clusters, space debris and fragmented nuclei. Variations of fragment number with size that are power-law-like (fractal), humped or exponential can lead to physically significant conclusions regarding the fracturing mechanism. Theoretical aspects of the maximum-entropy method in the derivation of the distribution law (including some difficulties) are discussed.