Minimal fragmentation problem

Abstract

As an alternative to the paradigmatic fragmentation problem of a single object crushed into a great number of pieces, we survey a large collection of identical bodies, each one randomly split into two fragments only. While some key features of usual fragmentation are preserved, this minimal approach allows for closed analytical results on both, shape abundances and mass distributions for the fragments, with robust power-law regimes. All the results are compared to numerical simulations.

to appear as a rapid communication in Phys. Rev. E