2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/83866The threshold law for N-body fragmentation under dipole forces is formulated. It emerges from the energy dependence of the normalization of the correlated continuum wave function for N fragments. It is shown that the dipole threshold law plays a key role in understanding all threshold fragmentation phenomena since it links the classical threshold law for long-range Coulomb interactions to the statistical law for short-range interactions. Furthermore, a tunnelling mechanism is identified as the common feature which occurs for all three classes of interactions, short-range, dipole and Coulomb.Atomic PhysicsGeneral Physicstext