Features of Gas-Liquid (GL) and Quark-Hadron (QH) phase transitions (PT) in dense nuclear matter are under discussion in comparison with their terrestrial counterparts, so-called "plasma" and "dissociative" PTs in dense molecular gases. Both, GLPT and QHPT, when being represented in widely used temperature-chemical potential phase diagram, are often considered as similar PTs, i.e. amenable to one-to-one mapping by simple scaling. We argue that this impression is illusive and that GLPT and QHPT belong to different classes: i.e. GLPT is typical enthalpic (VdW-like) PT, while QHPT is typical entropic ("deconfinement-driven") PT like hypothetical ionization- and dissociation-driven phase transitions in shock compressed hydrogen, nitrogen etc. in megabar pressure range. Difference of enthalpic and entropic PTs in topology of their binodals, spinodals and critical points, as well as in behavior of isolines within two-phase region of both types of PTs are compared.

Possibility of mesoscopic scenario for GLPT and QHPT in simple ("mixed phase") or complicated forms ("structured mixed phase") is discussed in connection with another hypothetical peculiarity of GLPT and QHPT – their non-congruence [1-3].

[1] Iosilevskiy I., Gryaznov V. et al. Contrib. Plasma Phys. 43, 316 (2003)
[2] Iosilevskiy I., Acta Physica Polonica B (Suppl.) 3, 589 (2010), arXiv:1005.4192
[3] Hempel M., Dexheimer V., Schramm S., Iosilevskiy I. (to be published): arXiv:1302.2835

Page created on April 30, 2013,
modified on May 11, 2013.