Nuclear response theory for spin-isospin excitations in a relativistic quasiparticle-phonon coupling framework

A new theoretical approach to spin-isospin excitations in open-shell nuclei is presented. The developed method is based on the relativistic meson-exchange nuclear Lagrangian of Quantum Hadrodynamics and extends the response theory for superfluid nuclear systems beyond relativistic quasiparticle random phase approximation in the proton-neutron channel (pn-RQRPA). The coupling between quasiparticle degrees of freedom and collective vibrations (phonons) introduces a time-dependent effective interaction, in addition to the exchange of pion and rho-meson taken into account without retardation. The time-dependent contributions are treated in the resonant time-blocking approximation, in analogy to the previously developed relativistic quasiparticle time-blocking approximation (RQTBA) in the neutral (non-isospin-flip) channel. The new method is called proton-neutron RQTBA (pn-RQTBA) and is applied to the Gamow-Teller resonance in a chain of neutron-rich nickel isotopes Ni68-78. A strong fragmentation of the resonance along with quenching of the strength, as compared to pn-RQRPA, is obtained. Based on the calculated strength distribution, beta-decay half-lives of the considered isotopes are computed and compared to pn-RQRPA half-lives and to experimental data. It is shown that a considerable improvement of the half-life description is obtained in pn-RQTBA because of the spreading effects, which bring the lifetimes to a very good quantitative agreement with data.