Pairing effects on spinodal decomposition of asymmetric nuclear matter

Abstract

We investigate the impact of pairing correlations on the behavior of unstable asymmetric nuclear matter at low temperature. We focus on the relative role of the pairing interaction, coupling nucleons of the same type (neutrons or protons), with respect to the symmetry potential, which enhances the neutron-proton attraction, along the clusterization process driven by spinodal instabilities. It is found that, especially at the transition temperature from the normal to the superfluid phase, pairing effects may induce significant variations in the isotopic content of the clusterized matter. This analysis is potentially useful to gather information on the temperature dependence of nuclear pairing and, in general, on the properties of clusterized low-density matter, of interest also in the astrophysical context.