Viscosity and thermal conductivity effects at first-order phase transitions in heavy-ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how viscosity and thermal conductivity influence the dynamics of first-order phase transitions in heavy-ion collisions, revealing that thermal conductivity shifts the onset of instabilities to higher temperatures.

Contribution

It provides a novel analysis of the effects of thermal conductivity on spinodal instabilities during phase transitions in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Thermal conductivity causes instabilities to occur on the isothermal spinodal line.

Without thermal conductivity, instabilities occur at lower temperatures on the adiabatic spinodal.

The study enhances understanding of phase transition dynamics in nuclear matter.

Abstract

Effects of viscosity and thermal conductivity on the dynamics of first-order phase transitions are studied. The nuclear gas-liquid and hadron-quark transitions in heavy-ion collisions are considered. We demonstrate that at non-zero thermal conductivity, $\kappa \neq 0$, onset of spinodal instabilities occurs on an isothermal spinodal line, whereas for $\kappa =0$ instabilities take place at lower temperatures, on an adiabatic spinodal.