A new scissors mode on the skin of deformed neutron rich nuclei

TL;DR

This paper uses covariant density functional theory to discover a new soft M1 mode involving neutron skin oscillations in deformed neutron-rich nuclei, expanding understanding of nuclear excitations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel soft scissors mode involving neutron skin oscillations, observed through self-consistent RQRPA calculations in deformed neutron-rich nuclei.

Findings

Identification of two distinct scissors modes in neutron-rich nuclei

Discovery of a new soft M1 mode involving neutron skin oscillations

Enhanced understanding of low-lying magnetic excitations in deformed nuclei

Abstract

Covariant density functional theory is used to analyze the evolution of low-lying M1 strength in superfluid deformed nuclei in the framework of the self-consistent Relativistic Quasiparticle Random Phase Approximation (RQRPA). In nuclei with a pronounced neutron excess two scissor modes are found. Besides the conventional scissor mode, where the deformed proton and neutron distributions oscillate against each other, a new soft M1 mode is found, where the deformed neutron skin oscillates in a scissor like motion against a deformed proton-neutron core.