Equation of state of nuclear matter in the first order phase transition

Abstract

We investigate the properties of nuclear matter at the first-order phase transitions (FOPT) such as liquid-gas phase transition, kaon condensation, and hadron-quark phase transition. As a general feature of the FOPT of matter consisting of many species of charged particles, there appears a mixed phases with regular structures called "pasta" due to the balance of the Coulomb repulsion and the surface tension between two phases. The equation of state (EOS) of mixed phase is different from those obtained by a bulk application of Gibbs conditions or by the Maxwell construction due to the effects of the non-uniform structure. We show that the charge screening and strong surface tension make the EOS close to that of the Maxwell construction.