Description of the dipole giant resonance in heavy and superheavy nuclei within Skyrme random-phase approximation

Abstract

The E1(T=1) isovector dipole giant resonance (GDR) in heavy and super-heavy deformed nuclei is analyzed over a sample of 18 rare-earth nuclei, 4 actinides and three chains of super-heavy elements (Z=102, 114 and 120). Basis of the description is self-consistent separable RPA (SRPA) using the Skyrme force SLy6. The self-consistent model well reproduces the experimental data (energies and widths) in the rare-earth and actinide region. The trend of the resonance peak energies follows the estimates from collective models, showing a bias to the volume mode for the rare-earths isotopes and a mix of volume and surface modes for actinides and super-heavy elements. The widths of the GDR are mainly determined by the Landau fragmentation which in turn is found to be strongly influenced by deformation. A deformation splitting of the GDR can contribute about one third to the width and about 1 MeV further broadening can be associated to mechanism beyond the mean-field description (escape, coupling with complex configurations).