Caloric curve for nuclear liquid–gas phase transition in relativistic mean-field hadronic model

The main thermodynamical properties of the first order phase transition of the relativistic mean-field (RMF) hadronic model were explored in the isobaric, the canonical and the grand canonical ensembles on the basis of the method of the thermodynamical potentials and their first derivatives. It was proved that the first order phase transition of the RMF model is the liquid–gas type one associated with the Gibbs free energy G. The thermodynamical potential G is the piecewise smooth function and its first order partial derivatives with respect to variables of state are the piecewise continuous functions. We have found that the energy in the caloric curve is discontinuous in the isobaric and the grand canonical ensembles at fixed values of the pressure and the chemical potential, respectively, and it is continuous, i.e. it has no plateau, in the canonical and microcanonical ensembles at fixed values of baryon density, while the baryon density in the isotherms is discontinuous in the isobaric and the canonical ensembles at fixed values of the temperature. The general criterion for the nuclear liquid–gas phase transition in the canonical ensemble was identified.