On a variational principle model for the Nuclear Caloric curve

Abstract

Following the lead of a recent work we perform a variational principle model calculation for the nuclear caloric curve. A Skyrme type interaction with and without momentum dependence is used. The calculation is done for a large nucleus, i.e, in the nuclear matter limit. Thus we address the issue of volume fragmentation only. Nonetheless the results are similar to the previous, largely phenomenological calculation for a finite nucleus. We find the onset of fragmentation can be sudden as a function of temperature/excitation energy.