On the Role of Quantum and Statistical Effects in the Liquid Gas Phase Transition of Hot Nuclei

Abstract

The triggering of the liquid-gas phase transition in hot nuclear matter by quantum and statistical fluctuations is studied in a microscopic approach to nucleation, which is a fluid-dynamical version of the imaginary time dependent mean field theory at finite temperature

Bubble formation in hot nuclei induced by statistical fluctuations

“…The values PL and pc(co) are taken as in ref. [5] and describe the homogeneous liquid and gas phases at equal chemical potential # and temperature T. In our present case of interest, PL is metastable in the sense that the corresponding thermodynamical energy density has a higher minimum at PL than at Pc (oo). The effective region of metastability is, however, modified in the presence of surface and Coulomb energies of a finite-size bubble, as compared to homogeneous nuclear matter.…”

“…[ 3 ], based on relativistic mean field theory of nuclei [4 ]. In a recent work [ 5 ], a similar approach, also using the path integral technique to calculate phase transitions, has been applied to bubble formation in hot and dense nuclear matter. In this work we improve upon ref.…”

“…The phase transitions are due to statistical fluctuations. Quantum fluctuations have been shown to be relevant only for temperatures T< 1 MeV [ 5 ] n. The transition probability W from a metastable phase to a stable one has a WKB-like formwhere ~max is the maximum of the thermodynamical potential [3,5], see eq. (3) and fig.…”

“…In this work we improve upon ref. [5 ] by including Coulomb forces which are of great importance in realistic calculations. In addition, we use a more appropriate parametrization of the bubble density profiles and take gradient corrections to the free kinetic energy functional into account.…”

“…1. We normalize W to 1 at vanshing potential barrier [ 5 ]. The relevant potential for isothermal processes in a grand canonical ensemble is the thermodynamical potential I2, defined as…”