where ρ$_{0}$ and ρ$_{c}$ are the level densities of the initial and residual nuclei, respectively, Q$_{c}$ is the Q -value of the reaction and σ$_{c}$ ( ϵ$_{c}$ ) is the absorption cross section for particles of type c incident on the residual nucleus at energy ϵ$_{c}$ . This implies an average relative energy for emission of particles of type c of 2 T$_{c}$ + V$_{c}$ , where V$_{c}$ is the effective Coulomb barrier between the emitted particle c and the residual nucleus and the temperature T$_{c}$ is very close to the temperature T$_{0}$ obtained from the same two-body decay in the FBM [27]. Judging from the energy released by the two-body decay mode, we would thus have to conclude that the FBM/SMM emission is no more explosive than the CN one. We thus suspect that the distinction made between FBM/SMM decay modes and those of the CN is a spurious one. If this is the case, there is no reason to retain the original one-body configuration in the SMM, to later decay by CN emission, as this emission is already taken into account by the FBM/SMM two-body decay modes. 

## V. CONCLUDING REMARKS 

We have shown that the FBM and the microcanonical SMM can be considered to be essentially one and the same model, if the FBM is generalized to include excited states and the one-fragment configuration is excluded from the SMM. The sequential CN decay assumed to occur after fragmentation in the SMM would then also be described in a more consistent manner by application of the FBM/SMM itself to the fragments. That is, the sequential CN decay would be substituted by sequential multifragmentation. This would naturally resolve the arbitrary division imposed in many calculations of post-fragmentation decay through sequential two-body CN decay for heavy nuclei and Fermi breakup for light nuclei. It, however, has the drawback of replacing well-known and very well-established expressions for two-body decay, such as the Weisskopf one of Eq. (29), with the simple FBM/SMM expression. The ideal solution would be an improved FBM/SMM, in which the two-body decay is described by a Weisskopf-like expression and n -body decay by an appro- priate extension of this. We would then have a consistent model of equilibrium statistical decay, in which the decay modes are dictated by the available energy and the characteristics of the system rather than by its modelers. Work in this direction is in progress. 

