Test of three-body contact Skyrme forces with spin excitations in deformed nuclei

Experimental data on spin M1 strength distributions in even-even rare-earth nuclei are compared to theoretical results of selfconsistent HF+RPA calculations with separable spin-spin residual interactions derived from the two alternative versions (two-body density-dependent and three-body contact terms) of the Skyrme force Sk3. It is shown that the two versions produce quite different spin M1 strength distributions, though they generate the same HF mean field. The experimental data favour the two-body over the three-body version of the Skyrme interactions Sk1-Sk6. (orig.)