Shear viscosity of neutron-rich nucleonic matter near its liquidgas phase transition
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Within a relaxation time approach using free nucleon-nucleon cross sections modified by the in-medium nucleon masses that are determined from an isospin- and momentum-dependent effective nucleon-nucleon interaction, we investigate the specific shear viscosity (/. s) of neutron-rich nucleonic matter near its liquid-gas phase transition. It is found that as the nucleonic matter is heated at fixed pressure or compressed at fixed temperature, its specific shear viscosity shows a valley shape in the temperature or density dependence, with the minimum located at the boundary of the phase transition. Moreover, the value of /. s drops suddenly at the first-order liquid-gas phase transition temperature, reaching as low as 4-5 times the KSS bound of /4. However, it varies smoothly for the second-order liquid-gas phase transition. Effects of the isospin degree of freedom and the nuclear symmetry energy on the value of /. s are also discussed. 2013 Elsevier B.V.