The role of the surface energy in nuclear octupole excitations

Abstract: Octupole excitations of atomic nuclei can be viewed as fluctuations around an equilibrium shape. These fluctuations in turn can be seen as probes of nuclear matter properties to the extent that the shape changes explore changes in compression, surface to volume ratio, or isospin overlap. In the present work we use a series of Skyrme interactions, which were fitted to provide a systematic range of surface energies, to explore the surface energy dependence of octupole excitations in $^{208}$Pb. We find a strong positive linear corelation between the surface energy of a Skyrme interaction and its prediction of the first $3^-$ octupole excitation energy.