  On the basis of systematic measurements of fragmentation reactions, which
provide a detailed overview on the velocity distributions of residual nuclei,
an improved description of the kinematical properties of the fragmentation
residues is established. This work is dedicated to the fluctuations of their
momentum distributions. In contrast to previous investigations, limited to
close-to-projectile fragments, we extended our study to the entire production
range, down to the lightest observed fragments. In this context, beside the
contribution of abrasion and evaporation processes, we considered the effect of
the thermal break-up on the width of the momentum distributions. Using
approximated theoretical descriptions of the different reaction stages, a new
analytical formula for the variance of the momentum distribution is derived,
which is well adapted to technical applications.
