STUDIES IN THE STATISTICAL AND THERMAL-PROPERTIES OF HADRONIC MATTER UNDER SOME EXTREME CONDITIONS

The thermal and statistical properties of hadronic matter under some e xtreme conditions are investigated using an exactly solvable canonical ensemble model. A unified model describing both the fragmentation of nuclei and the thermal properties of hadronic matter is developed. Sim ple expressions are obtained for quantities such as the hadronic equat ion of state, specific heat, compressibility, entropy, and excitation energy as a function of temperature and density. These expressions enc ompass the fermionic aspect of nucleons, such as degeneracy pressure a nd Fermi energy at low temperatures and the ideal gas laws at high tem peratures and low density. Expressions are developed which connect the se two extremes with behavior that resembles an ideal Bose gas with it s associated Bose condensation. In the thermodynamic limit, an infinit e cluster exists below a certain critical condition in a manner simila r to the sudden appearance of the infinite cluster in percolation theo ry. The importance of multiplicity fluctuations is discussed and some recent data from the EOS collaboration on critical point behavior of n uclei can be accounted for using simple expressions obtained from the model.