Emergence of pygmy dipole resonances: Magic numbers and neutron skins

Abstract: The pygmy dipole resonances (PDR) for even-even nuclei in 8=<Z=<40 are studied performing a systematic calculation of the random-phase approximation with the Skyrme functional of SkM*. The calculation is fully self-consistent and does not assume any symmetry in the nuclear shape of the ground state. In every isotopic chain, the PDR emerges by showing a peak of the E1 strength at energies less than 10 MeV. The E1 strength of the PDR strongly depends on the position of the Fermi level and shows a clear correlation with the occupation of the orbits with the orbital angular momenta less than 3\hbar (l =< 2). We also found a strong correlation between the isotopic dependence of the neutron skin thickness and the pygmy dipole strength. The fraction of the energy weighted strength exhausted by the PDR and the neutron skin thickness show a linear correlation with the universal rate of about 0.2/fm.