Elsevier

Nuclear Physics A

Volume 411, Issue 3, 26 December 1983, Pages 449-473
Nuclear Physics A

Phase transitions in cold and warm dense matter

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Abstract

We consider the phase transitions, in dense matter, from nuclei to bubbles and from bubbles to uniform matter. A simplified version of the compressible liquid-drop model allows us to discuss analytically the densities at which the free energies of the different phases are equal, and the density discontinuities of the phases in equilibrium. A reasonable agreement with detailed numerical calculations is obtained only if the compressibility of the matter inside nuclei, and particularly outside bubbles, is taken into account. The dependence of the bubbles-uniform matter transition on the various elements of the Coulomb energy is discussed in detail: the transition is actually a first-order one, but it becomes of second order if the lattice Coulomb energy is turned off.

The insight into the effect on the transition of the ratio of surface-plus-Coulomb energy to compression modulus allows us to understand the dependence of the transition densities on temperature and on the microscopic model employed.

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Supported in part by US National Science Foundation grants NSF PHY82-01948 and NSF PHY80-25605, by the US Department of Energy grant DOE ACO2-80ER-10719, and by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration grant NASA NAGW-246.

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow.

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