"Latent heat" of first-order varying pressure transitions

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the energy release during first-order phase transitions, providing universal formulas and examining the deconfinement transition at high densities, with implications for nuclear and quark matter.

Contribution

It introduces universal formulas for energy release in first-order transitions and explores their application to high-density nuclear matter.

Findings

Energy release per particle varies with density.

Mean energy release per baryon is about 0.1 MeV.

Universal formulas apply across different models.

Abstract

We consider the energy release associated with first-order transition by Gibbs construction and present such energy release as an accumulation of a series of tiny binding energy differences between over-compressed states and stable ones. Universal formulae for the energy release from one homogeneous phase to the other is given. We find the energy release per converted particle varies with number density. As an example, the deconfinement phase transition at supranuclear densities is discussed in detail. The mean energy release per converted baryon is of order 0.1MeV in RMF theory and MIT bag descriptions for hadronic matter and strange quark matter for a wider parameter region.