Critical temperature for quenching of pair correlations - art. no. 021306

The level density at low spin in the Dy-161.162 and Yb-171.172 nuclei has b een extracted from primary gamma rays. The nuclear heat capacity is deduced within the framework of the canonical ensemble. The heat capacity exhibits an S-formed shape as a function of temperature, which is interpreted as a fingerprint of the phase transition from a strongly correlated to an uncorr elated phase. The critical temperature for the quenching of pair correlatio ns is found at T-c = 0.50 +/- 0.04 (stat) +/- 0.08 ( syst) MeV.