Echoes of the liquid–gas phase transition in multifragmentation Original Research Article

A general discussion is made concerning the ways in which one can get signatures about a possible liquid–gas phase transition in nuclear matter. Microcanonical temperature, heat capacity and second-order derivative of the entropy versus energy formulas have been deduced in a general case. These formulas are exact, simply applicable and do not depend on any model assumption. Therefore, they are suitable to be applied on experimental data. The formulas are tested in various situations. It is evidenced that when the freeze-out constraint is of fluctuating volume type the deduced (heat capacity and second-order derivative of the entropy versus energy) formulas will prompt the spinodal region through specific signals. Finally, the same microcanonical formulas are deduced for the case when an incomplete number of fragments per event are available. These formulas could overcome the freeze-out backtracking deficiencies.