Relativistic Coulomb Excitation within the Time Dependent Superfluid Local Density Approximation

Within the framework of the unrestricted time-dependent density functional theory, we present for the first time an analysis of the relativistic Coulomb excitation of the heavy deformed open shell nucleus U-238. The approach is based on the superfluid local density approximation formulated on a spatial lattice that can take into account coupling to the continuum, enabling self-consistent studies of superfluid dynamics of any nuclear shape. We compute the energy deposited in the target nucleus as a function of the impact parameter, finding it to be significantly larger than the estimate using the Goldhaber-Teller model. The isovector giant dipole resonance, the dipole pygmy resonance, and giant quadrupole modes are excited during the process. The one-body dissipation of collective dipole modes is shown to lead a damping width Gamma(down arrow) approximate to 0.4 MeV and the number of preequilibrium neutrons emitted has been quantified.