We study the phase transition of asymmetric hadronic matter to a quark-gluonplasma within the framework of a simple two-phase model. The analysis isperformed in a system with two conserved charges (baryon number and isospin)using the stability conditions on the free energy, the conservation laws andGibbs' criteria for phase equilibrium. The EOS is obtained in a separatedescription for the hadronic phase and for the quark-gluon plasma. For thehadrons, a relativistic mean-field model calibrated to the properties ofnuclear matter is used, and a bag-model type EOS is used for the quarks andgluons. The model is applied to the deconfinement phase transition that mayoccur in matter created in ultra-relativistic collisions of heavy ions. Basedon the two-dimensional coexistence surface (binodal), various phase separationscenarios and the Maxwell construction through the mixed phase are discussed.In the framework of the two-phase model the phase transition in asymmetricmatter is continuous (second-order by Ehrenfest's definition) in contrast tothe discontinuous (first-order) transition of symmetric systems.
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