Phase transformations in highly excited clusters

In this communication we analyze the behavior of exciteddrops that undergo fragmentation. We focus our attention on twoscenarios: in the first one the system is free to expand, whilein the second one it is confined inside a spherical volume. Itis shown that the caloric curve of free expanding systems doesnot display a vapor branch. In the case of constrained ones,they behave as undergoing a first order phase transition at lowdensities while as a second order one at high densities. Thetransition from liquid-like to vapor-like behavior is signaledboth by the caloric curves and thermal response functions.