Liquid-gas phase transition in nuclei in the relativistic Thomas-Fermi theory - art. no. 054604

The equation of state (EOS) of finite nuclei is constructed in the relativi stic Thomas-Fermi theory using the nonlinear sigma-omega-rho model. The cal oric curves are calculated by confining the nuclei in the freeze-out volume taken to be a sphere of size about 4-8 times the normal nuclear volume. Th e results obtained from the relativistic theory are not significantly diffe rent from those obtained earlier in a nonrelativistic framework. The nature of the EOS and the peaked structure of the specific heat C-upsilon obtaine d from the caloric curves show clear signals of a liquid-gas phase transiti on in finite nuclei. The temperature evolution of the Gibbs potential and t he entropy at constant pressure indicate that the characteristics of the tr ansition are not too different from the first-order one.