CRITICAL NEUTRON-PROTON ASYMMETRY OF HOT NUCLEAR MATTER

Abstract

We derive an equation of state for asymmetric nuclear matter at finite temperature, using the Skyrme effective nucleon-nucleon interaction and a mean field approach based on a real-time finite temperature Green’s function method with a normal pair cutoff approximation. With the temperature held constant, it is found that nuclear matter can exist only in the gaseous phase when its neutron excess coefficient a has surpassed a certain critical value α c . We have calculated α c for a number of different Skyrme effective interactions. Phase diagrams involving a are obtained, and a low-density equation for the phase boundary is derived.