Boiling patterns of neutron-rich nuclear matter, J. Toke, University of Rochester, USA − Limits of thermodynamic stability of self-bound neutron-rich nuclear matter are explored within the framework of microcanonical thermodynamics of interacting Fermi Gas model in Thomas-Fermi approximation. It is found that at certain excitation energy the 2x2 curvature matrix of the entropy (as a function of excitation energy and iso-asymmetry) ceases to be negative definite in a way indicating onset of thermo-chemical instability.  This leads to boiling off more and more neutrons as the excitation energy per nucleon is raised in a process identified as distillation.  Eventually, the boiling point of iso-symmetric matter is reached as the system has shed all excess neutrons, such that any additional excitation energy brought into the system is expended in the form of latent heat of boiling while the residual system stays at constant excitation energy per nucleon and temperature.