title: Partitioning composite finite systems
abstract: We compare different analytical and numerical methods for studying the partitions of a finite system into fragments. We propose a numerical method of exploring the partition space by generating the Markov chains of partitions based on the Metropolis algorithm. The advantages of the method for the problems where partitions are sampled with nontrivial weights are demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: GANIL (CEA-DSM/CNRS-IN2P3), BP 5027, F-14076 Caen Cedex 5, France and Dipartimento di Fisica and INFN, 40126 Bologna, Italy and Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Science, 117312 Moscow, Russia.
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Botvina
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Mishustin