Microscopic analysis of low-energy spin and orbital magnetic dipole excitations in deformed nuclei

TL;DR

This study uses self-consistent QRPA calculations with Skyrme forces to analyze low-energy spin and orbital magnetic dipole excitations in deformed nuclei, challenging previous spin-scissors resonance predictions and clarifying the nature of these excitations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed microscopic analysis of low-energy M1 excitations in deformed nuclei, showing that deformation is not the primary cause of spin M1 states and clarifying their structure.

Findings

Low-energy M1 states are mainly low-orbital spin-flip configurations.

Deformation influences but does not cause the low-energy spin M1 states.

Fragmentation explains observed M1 states in Dy and Th nuclei.

Abstract

A low-energy magnetic dipole $(M1)$ spin-scissors resonance (SSR) located just below the ordinary orbital scissors resonance (OSR) was recently predicted in deformed nuclei within the Wigner Function Moments (WFM) approach. We analyze this prediction using fully self-consistent Skyrme Quasiparticle Random Phase Approximation (QRPA) method. Skyrme forces SkM*, SVbas and SG2 are implemented to explore SSR and OSR in $^{160,162,164}$Dy and $^{232}$Th. Accuracy of the method is justified by a good description of M1 spin-flip giant resonance. The calculations show that isotopes $^{160,162,164}$Dy indeed have at 1.5-2.4 MeV (below OSR) $I^{\pi}K=1^+1$ states with a large $M1$ spin strength ($K$ is the projection of the total nuclear moment to the symmetry z-axis). These states are almost fully exhausted by $pp[411\uparrow, 411\downarrow]$ and $nn[521\uparrow, 521\downarrow]$ spin-flip configurations corresponding to $pp[2d_{3/2}, 2d_{5/2}]$ and $nn[2f_{5/2}, 2f_{7/2}]$ structures in the spherical limit. So the predicted SSR is actually reduced to low-orbital (l=2,3) spin-flip states. Following our analysis and in contradiction with WFM spin-scissors picture, deformation is not the principle origin of the low-energy spin $M1$ states but only a factor affecting their features. The spin and orbital strengths are generally mixed and exhibit the interference: weak destructive in SSR range and strong constructive in OSR range. In $^{232}$Th, the $M1$ spin strength is found very small. Two groups of $I^{\pi}=1^+$ states observed experimentally at 2.4-4 MeV in $^{160,162,164}$Dy and at 2-4 MeV in $^{232}$Th are mainly explained by fragmentation of the orbital strength. Distributions of nuclear currents in QRPA states partly correspond to the isovector orbital-scissors flow but not to spin-scissors one.