A mean-field plus pairing model for atomic nuclei in the Fe region was
studied using a finite-temperature quantum Monte-Carlo method. We present
results for thermodynamical quantities such as the internal energy and the
specific heat. These results give indications of a phase transition related to
the pairing amongst nucleons, around temperatures of 0.7 MeV. The influence of
the residual interaction and of the size of the model space on the nuclear
level densities is discussed too.Comment: 23 pages, including 17 eps figure
