Emergence of pygmy dipole resonances: Magic numbers and neutron skins

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 (h) over bar (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(-1).