Effects of Quasiparticle-Vibration Coupling on Gamow-Teller Strength and $\beta$ Decay with the Skyrme Proton-Neutron Finite-Amplitude Method

Abstract

We adapt the proton-neutron finite-amplitude method, which in its original form is an efficient implementation of the Skyrme quasiparticle random phase approximation, to include the coupling of quasiparticles to like-particle phonons. The approach allows us to add beyond-QRPA correlations to computations of Gamow-Teller strength and $\beta$-decay rates in deformed nuclei for the first time. We test the approach in several deformed isotopes for which measured strength distributions are available. The additional correlations dramatically improve agreement with the data, and will lead to improved global $\beta$-decay rates.