The Quantum Nature of a Nuclear Phase Transition

Details The Quantum Nature of a Nuclear Phase Transition The Quantum Nature of a Nuclear Phase Transition

2008-03-26

arxiv.org/abs/0803.3770v1

Phys.Rev.Lett.101:122702,2008

Physics

Nuclear Physics

Nuclear Experiment

5 pages, 4 figures

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.122702

In their ground states, atomic nuclei are quantum Fermi liquids. At finite temperatures and low densities, these nuclei may undergo a phase change similar to, but substantially different from, a classical liquid gas phase transition. As in the classical case, temperature is the control parameter while density and pressure are the conjugate variables. At variance with the classical case, in the nucleus the difference between the proton and neutron concentrations acts as an additional order parameter, for which the symmetry potential is the conjugate variable. Different ratios of the neutron to proton concentrations lead to different critical points for the phase transition. This is analogous to the phase transitions occurring in $^{4}$He-$^{3}$He liquid mixtures. We present experimental results which reveal the N/Z dependence of the phase transition and discuss possible implications of these observations in terms of the Landau Free Energy description of critical phenomena.

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