LAUSR

The noncongruent liquid-gas phase transition (LGPT) in asymmetric nuclear matter is studied using the recently developed quantum van der Waals model in the grand canonical ensemble. Different values of the electric-to-baryon charge ratio, Q/B, are considered. This noncongruent LGPT exhibits several features which are not present in the congruent LGPT of symmetric nuclear matter. These include a continuous phase transformation, a change in the location of the critical point, and the separation of the critical point and the endpoints. The effects which are associated with the noncongruent LGPT become negligible for the following cases: when Q/B approaches its limiting values, 0.5 or 0, or if isospin dependence of nucleon-nucleon interaction and quantum statistical effects can be neglected. The latter situation is realized when the particle degeneracy attains large values, g≳10.