dr Stefan Typel - GSI Helmhotz Zentrum, Darmstadt

Heavy nuclei and clusters in nuclear matter

At densities below saturation and not too high temperatures, nuclear matter is a spatially inhomogeneous system composed of heavy nuclei immersed in a sea of nucleons and light clusters. Thermodynamical properties and the composition of the matter are strongly affected by the formation of clusters. In this talk the description of such a system based on a generalized relativistic mean-field model is presented. This approach allows a smooth interpolation between the low-density phase dominated by few-body correlations and the homogeneous phase above saturation where mean-field concepts are applicable.