Abstract
The non-congruent liquid-gas phase transition (LGPT) in asymmetric nuclear matter is studied using the recently developed Quantum van der Waals model in the grand canonical ensemble. Different values of the electric-to-baryon charge ratio, $Q/B$, are considered. This non-congruent LGPT exhibits several features which are not present in the congruent LGPT of symmetric nuclear matter. These include a continuous phase transformation, a change in the location of the critical point, and the separation of the critical point and the endpoints. The effects which are associated with the non-congruent LGPT become negligible for the following cases: when $Q/B$ approaches its limiting values, $0.5$ or $0$, or if quantum statistical effects can be neglected. The latter situation is realized when the particle degeneracy attains large values, $g\gtrsim 10$.
Highlights
An infinite hypothetical system of interacting neutrons and protons in equal proportions is called symmetric nuclear matter
The present paper studies the liquid-gas phase transition (LGPT) in asymmetric nuclear matter using the quantum vdW (QvdW) model
The noncongruent liquid-gas phase transition in asymmetric nuclear matter with two globally conserved charges is studied within the quantum van der Waals model
Summary
An infinite hypothetical system of interacting neutrons and protons in equal proportions is called symmetric nuclear matter. The known phenomenology of the nucleon-nucleon interaction suggests short range repulsion and intermediate range attraction This yields a first-order liquid-gas phase transition (LGPT) from a diluted (gaseous) to a dense (liquid) phase in symmetric nuclear matter, and, correspondingly, a discontinuity of the particle number density as a function of pressure. The present paper treats the more complex situation when the densities of neutrons and protons are not equal, i.e., the ratio of the electric-to-baryon charge, Q/B = 0.5 This asymmetric nuclear matter is the subject of Refs. We employ an extension of the classical van der Waals (vdW) model which was recently generalized to include the effects of quantum statistics, special relativity, grand canonical ensemble, and mixtures of different sized constituents This quantum vdW (QvdW) model has been further developed and applied to the description of symmetric nuclear matter in Refs.
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