Effects of Finite Size of Nuclei on their Thermodynamic Properties

We investigate the effects of finite size on the thermodynamic properties of nuclei. For this purpose we first calculate the single particle level density, g($\epsilon$), which was derived using the Thomas-Fermi approximation and a finite single particle potential of a trapezoidal form. We carried out these calculations for nuclei with Z=N. We then calculate the level density parameter and the temperature dependence of the excitation energy E* and the entropy S. We demonstrate the important effects the finite size of nuclei has on these values by comparing our results with the values obtained using the commonly adopted Fermi Gas model.