Liquid-Gas Phase Transition and Instabilities in Asymmetric Two Component Systems

Abstract

The liquid-gas phase transition and associated instability in two component systems are investigated using a mean field theory. The importance of the role of both the Coulomb force and symmetry energy terms are studied. The addition of the Coulomb terms bring asymmetry into a mean field and thus result in important differences with previous approaches which did not include such terms. The Coulomb effects modify the chemical instability and mechanical instability domains shifting many features away from proton fraction point y=1/2 to a value closer to the valley of \beta stability. These features are discussed in detail.