Bose-Einstein condensate of alpha particles in the ground state of nuclear matter?

Abstract

The phase diagram of isospin-symmetric chemically equilibrated mixture of alpha particles and nucleons is studied in the mean-field approximation. Skyrme-like parametrization is used for the mean-field potentials as functions of partial densities of nucleons and alphas. We find that there is a threshold value a* of the parameter a(N-alpha) which describes the attractive interaction between alpha-particles and nucleons. At a(N-alpha)<a* the ground state of nuclear matter at zero temperature behaves as a pure system of interacting nucleons, whereas at a(N-alpha)>a* the nuclear ground state includes also a nonzero fraction of alphas. We demonstrate that the equation of state of such alpha-N system includes both the first-order liquid-gas phase transitions and the Bose-Einstein condensation of alpha particles.

arXiv comment12 pages, 5 figures

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• Temperature of the hot $\alpha$-source: a guidance to probe the Bose-Einstein condensation of $\alpha$ clusters in the heavy-ion collision
• Bose-Einstein condensation in finite drops of alpha particles
• Particle-number fluctuations near the critical point of nuclear matter