Chemical and mechanical spinodals a unique liquid-gas instability

Abstract

We demonstrate that the instabilities of asymmetric nuclear matter at sub-saturation densities do not present two types of instabilities as usually discussed but a unique one. The associated order parameter is everywhere dominated by the isoscalar density and so the transition is of liquid-gas type even in the so-called chemical instability region.

Comments: 6 pages, 3 figures, International Symposium on Physics of Unstable Nuclei, Halong Bay(Vietnam) Nov. 2002