Exactly Soluble Model for Nuclear Liquid-Gas Phase Transition

Abstract

Thermodynamical properties of nuclear matter undergoing multifragmentation are studied within a simplified version of the statistical model. An exact analytical solution has been found for the grand canonical ensemble. Excluded volume effects are taken into account in the thermodynamically self-consistent way. In thermodynamic limit the model exhibits a first order liquid-gas phase transition with specific mixed phase properties. An extension of the model including the Fisher's term is also studied. The possibility of the second order phase transition at or above the critical point is demonstrated. The fragment mass distributions in the different regions of the phase diagram are discussed.