Work

Liquid-gas phase instabilities and droplet formation in nuclear reactions

Year: 1984

Type: article

Abstract: The thermodynamics and critical exponents of nuclear matter near the critical point of a liquid-gas phase transition are studied. We then investigate fluctuations near the critical point. One effect of a finite number of nucleons, as in nuclear reactions, is to wash out the first-order phase transition for several MeV below the critical temperature. This is manifested in the fact that there is a finite probability for the system to exist in the metastable or unstable regions of infinite matter. The phenomenological droplet model is applied to a wide range of recent data on fragment yields in the range $6<A<52$, and good fits are obtained. Heavy ion reactions are consistent with droplet formation in a supersaturated vapor, with supersaturation ratios up to 3.25. Proton-nucleus reactions are consistent with droplet formation in a saturated vapor.

Source: Physical Review C

DOI: 10.1103/physrevc.30.851

Authors: Alan L. Goodman, Joseph I. Kapusta, Aram Z. Mekjian

Institutions: Tulane University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, University of Minnesota, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Language: English

Topic: Nuclear physics research studies

Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W2074601388

FWCI: 6.641

Cites: 31

Cited by: 181

Related to: 10