Thermodynamical Characterization of Heavy Ion Reactions

An detailed study of the thermodynamical state of nuclear matter in transport calculations of heavy–ion reactions is presented. In particular we determine temperatures from an analysis of the local momentum space distribution on one hand, and from a fit to fragment energy spectra in terms of a blast model with radial flow and temperature on the other. We apply this to spectator and participant matter. In spectator we find regions of spinodal instability with temperatures and densities which are consistent with experiments. In the participant we find different temperatures for different fragment masses, indicating that the fragments are not emitted from a source in thermal and chemical equilibrium.