Excluded-Volume Approximation for Supernova Matter

A general scheme of the excluded-volume approximation as applied to multicomponent systems with an arbitrary degree of degeneracy has been developed. This scheme also admits an allowance for additional interactions between the components of a system. A specific form of the excluded-volume approximation for investigating supernova matter at subnuclear densities has been found from comparison with the hard-sphere model. The possibility of describing the phase transition to uniform nuclear matter in terms of the formalism under consideration is discussed.