Giant dipole resonance in hot rotating nuclei

Abstract

Over the last several decades, extensive experimental and theoretical work has been done on the giant dipole resonance (GDR) in excited nuclei covering a wide range of temperature (T), angular momentum (J) and nuclear mass. A reasonable stability of the GDR centroid energy and an increase of the GDR width with T (in the range $ \sim 1 - 3$ MeV) and J are the two well-established results. Some experiments have indicated the saturation of the GDR width at high T . The gradual disappearance of the GDR vibration at much higher T has been observed. Experiments on the Jacobi transition and the GDR built on superdeformed shapes at high rotational frequencies have been reported in a few cases. Theoretical calculations on the damping of the collective dipole vibration, characterised by the GDR width, have been carried out within various models such as the thermal shape fluctuation model and the phonon damping model. These models offer different interpretations of the variation of the GDR width with T and J and have met with varying degrees of success in explaining the experimental data. In this review, the present experimental and theoretical status in this field will be discussed along with the future outlook. The interesting phenomenon of the pre-equilibrium GDR excitation in nuclear reactions will be briefly addressed.