Pairing and continuum effects on low-frequency quadrupole vibrations in deformed Mg isotopes close to the neutron drip line

Abstract

Low-frequency quadrupole vibrational modes in deformed $^{36,38,40}$Mg close to the neutron drip line are studied by means of the quasiparticle-random-phase approximation based on the coordinate-space Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov formalism. Strongly collective $K^{\pi}=0^{+}$ and $2^{+}$ excitation modes carrying 10-20 Weisskopf units in the intrinsic isoscalar quadrupole transition strengths are obtained at about 3 MeV. There are two reasons for the enhancement of the transition strengths. First, the quasiparticle wave functions generating these modes possess spatially very extended structure. The asymptotic selection rules characterizing the $\beta$ and $\gamma$ vibrations in stable deformed nuclei are thus strongly violated. Second, the dynamic pairing effects act strongly to enhance the collectivity of these modes. It is suggested that the lowest $K^{\pi}=0^{+}$ collective mode is a particularly sensitive indicator of the nature of pairing correlations in deformed nuclei close to the neutron drip line.