Nuclear vorticity and the low-energy nuclear response. Towards the neutron drip line

The transition density and current provide valuable insight into the nature of nuclear vibrations. Nuclear vorticity is a quantity related to the transverse transition current. In this work, we study the evolution of the strength distribution, related to density fluctuations, and the vorticity strength distribution, as the neutron drip line is approached. Our results on the isoscalar, natural-parity multipole response of Ni isotopes, obtained by using a self-consistent Skyrme-Hartree-Fock+continuum RPA model, indicate that, close to the drip line, the low-energy response is dominated by L > 1 vortical transitions. (orig.)