The nuclear liquid-gas phase transition: Present status and future perspectives

More than two decades ago, the van der Waals behavior of the nucleon -nucleon force inspired the idea of a liquid-gas phase transition in nuclear matter. Heavy-ion reactions at relativistic energies offer the unique possibility for studying this phase transition in a finite, hadronic system. A general overview of this subject is given emphasizing the most recent results on nuclear calorimetry. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RO 801(96-31) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman