Liquid-gas phase instabilities and droplet formation in nuclear reactions

Liquid-Gas Phase Transition in Nuclear Multifragmentation

“…A phenomenological droplet model based on homogeneous nucleation theory has also been used to describe mass yields provided in heavy-ion collisions [148]. The nucleation model is an extension of the Fisher droplet model which was originally used to describe such yields.…”

Thermostatic properties of Seyler-Blanchard nuclei

“…As is evident, our calculations (solid circles) are very well reproduced by the formula where lo = 1.069 MeV /fm 2 is the standard surface tension and the critical temperature is Tc = 16.66 MeV [1). This analytical form was first suggested by Goodman, Kapusta and Mekjian [9], and it has been employed in a variety of studies since then but has not actually been tested for accuracy, as far as we are aware. Our present results demonstrate that this expression is indeed a very good representation of the calculated behavior.…”

“…Considering the volume and surface terms only, we may write (26) 9 where a 1 and a 2 are the volume and surface coefficients, respectively. At zero temperature, a 1 reduces to the value 16.037 MeV associated with cold nuclear matter, and a 2 becomes the usual surface energy coefficient used above, a 2 (0) = 18.06 MeV.…”

Physics of high-energy heavy-ion collisions

“…In the decay of highly excited nuclei it is possible to study the low density part of the nuclear EOS, since at those densities (e < eo) the behaviour of the system is governed by the balance of long-range attractive and short-range repulsive nuclear forces with the long-range Coulomb force. In analogy with the classical Van der Waals gas, where the interplay between longrange attractive and short-range repulsive forces leads to a second-order phase transition, such a liquid-vapour phase transition is also expected in heavy-ion collisions (Friedman and Pandharipande 1981, Bertsch and Siemens 1983, Siemens 1983, Goodman et al 1984, Panagioutou et al 1984, Csernai and Kapusta 1986, Hahn and Stocker 1988. In low-energy heavy-ion collisions or high-energy proton-induced reactions this phase transition results in an increase in the total entropy (Csernai and Kapusta 1986) and in the fragmentation of the system (Fisher 1967).…”