General treatment of vortical, toroidal, and compression modes

Abstract

The multipole vortical, toroidal, and compression modes are analyzed. Following the vorticity concept of Ravenhall and Wambach, the vortical operator is derived and related in a simple way to the toroidal and compression operators. The strength functions and velocity fields of the modes are analyzed in ${}^{208}$Pb within the random-phase approximation using the Skyrme force SLy6. Both convection and magnetization nuclear currents are taken into account. It is shown that the isoscalar (isovector) vortical and toroidal modes are dominated by the convection (magnetization) nuclear current while the compression mode is fully convective. The relation between the above concept of the vorticity and the hydrodynamical vorticity is briefly discussed.