ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we concentrate on the study of hot nuclear species produced in the nuclear collisions described in chapter 5. The methods for estimating the degree of thermalization and for measuring the excitation energy deposited in the system as well as the temperature, T , have been discussed in chapter 4. The study of the decay modes of hot nuclei is at the heart of nuclear thermodynamics. It can provide useful information on the instabilities present in the system. The latter will lead to particle, fragment or photon emission. Such studies also reveal the nature of the motion of the nucleons inside the system at finite excitation energy and thus are intimately related to nuclear dynamics.
