Gamow-Teller strength and nuclear deformation

We study Gamow-Teller (GT) strength distributions within a QRPA approach performed on top of a deformed Hartree-Fock + BCS single particle basis. Consistency of the method is achieved by deriving the mean field and the residual spin-isospin interaction from the same effective density-dependent Skyrme force. The method is used to address different problems of interest in nuclear structure and nuclear astrophysics, such as the GT strength distributions in the iron mass region and the beta-decay properties of medium-mass proton-rich nuclei. We study in particular the half-lives of N=Z waiting point nuclei involved in the astrophysical rp-process. The sensitivity of our calculations to deformation, pairing and residual interactions is discussed and comparison with the available experimental information on GT strengths and half-lives is shown. The deformation dependence of the GT strength distributions is used to extract information on the nuclear shapes of exotic nuclei. (authors)