Isospin fractionation : equilibrium versus spinodal decomposition

C. Ducoin (1) , P. Chomaz (2) , F. Gulminelli (1)

1 LPCC - Laboratoire de physique corpusculaire de Caen
2 GANIL - Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds

This paper focuses on the isospin properties of the asymmetric nuclear-matter liquid-gas phase transition analyzed in a mean-field approach, using Skyrme effective interactions. We compare two different mechanisms of phase separation for low-density matter: equilibrium and spinodal decomposition. The isospin properties of the phases are deduced from the free-energy curvature, which contains information both on the average isospin content and on the system fluctuations. Some implications on experimentally accessible isospin observables are presented.

Mots clés: nuclear thermodynamics; effective interactions; isospin fluctuations; nuclear matter; phase diagram; phase transition; phase equilibrium; spinodal decomposition; isospin fractionation

Domaines: Physique Nucléaire Théorique [nucl-th]

C. Ducoin, P. Chomaz, F. Gulminelli. Isospin fractionation : equilibrium versus spinodal decomposition. Nuclear Physics A, 2007, 781, pp.407-423. ⟨10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2006.11.047⟩. ⟨hal-00080648v2⟩