  Odd-Even Staggering (OES) appears in many areas of nuclear physics, and is
generally associated with the pairing term in the nuclear binding energy. To
explore this effect, we use the Improved Statistical Multifragmentation Model
to populate an ensemble of hot primary fragments, which are then de-excited
using the Weisskopf-Ewing statistical emission formalism. The yields are then
compared to experimental data. Our results show that, before secondary decay,
OES appears only in the yields of even mass fragments and not in the yields of
odd mass fragments. De-excitation of the hot fragments must be taken into
account to describe the data, suggesting that the OES in fragment yields is a
useful criterion for validating or adjusting theoretical de-excitation models.
