Nuclear phase transition and thermodynamic instabilities in dense nuclear matter

Abstract

We study the presence of thermodynamic instabilities in a nuclear medium at finite temperature and density where nuclear phase transitions can take place. Such a phase transition is characterized by pure hadronic matter with both mechanical instability (fluctuations on the baryon density) that by chemical-diffusive instability (fluctuations on the electric charge concentration). Similarly to the liquid-gas phase transition, the nucleonic and the Δ-matter phase have a different isospin density in the mixed phase. In the liquid-gas phase transition, the process of producing a larger neutron excess in the gas phase is referred to as isospin fractionation. A similar effects can occur in the nucleon-Δ matter phase transition due essentially to a Δ- excess in the Δ-matter phase in asymmetric nuclear matter. In this context we also discuss the relevance of Δ-isobar and hyperon degrees of freedom in the bulk properties of the protoneutron stars at fixed entropy per baryon, in the presence and in the absence of trapped neutrinos.