A model of nuclear matter

• Main Author: Escamilla Roa, Jesus
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2003
• Subjects: Nuclear physics
• ISBN: 9798209599203

In view of the recent findings [Elliot et al.], that show that nuclei can undergo a liquid-gas phase transition, the determination of the equation of state becomes a fundamental problem in nuclear physics. In this work, a phenomenological model of the nuclear equation of state is developed. There have been numerous theoretical studies of the dynamics of medium-energy heavy ion collisions. Some of these are based on equilibrium thermodynamics and focus on the nuclear matter phase diagram. The basic feature is the liquid-gas phase transition at moderate temperatures, and how the nuclear system evolves through various phase-separation boundaries (binodals) and instability boundaries (spinodals). The study of nuclear liquid-gas phase transition is of special interest in the intermediate energy heavy-ion collisions. In the ground state nuclei can be described as a nuclear liquid at temperature T = 0 and normal nuclear density ρ = 0.15 fm−3 . During the collision the shock waves heat the nuclei interpenetrated each other, and when the excitation of nucleons exceeds their binding energy one may assume that the nuclear matter undergoes a phase transition to the gaseous state. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)