Microscopic analysis of dipole electric and magnetic strengths in ^156 Gd

The dipole electric ( E 1) and magnetic ( M 1) strengths in strongly deformed ^156 Gd are investigated within a fully self-consistent Quasiparticle Random Phase Approximation (QRPA) with Skyrme forces SVbas, SLy6 and SG2. We inspect, on the same theoretical footing, low-lying dipole states and the isovector giant dipole resonance in E 1 channel and the orbital scissors resonance as well as the spin-flip giant resonance (SFGR) in M 1 channel. Besides, E 1 toroidal mode and low-energy spin-flip M 1 excitations are considered. The deformation splitting and dipole-octupole coupling of electric excitations are analyzed. The origin of SFGR gross structure, impact of the residual interaction and interference of orbital and spin contributions to SFGR are discussed. The effect of the central exchange J^2 -term from the Skyrme functional is demonstrated. The calculations show a satisfactory agreement with available experimental data, except for the recent NRF measurements of M. Tamkas et al for M 1 strength at 4–6 MeV, where, in contradiction with our calculations and previous (p,p') data, almost no M 1 strength was observed.