Microscopic description of the octupole degree of freedom with the Gogny force

In this paper the author describes how the standard nuclear physics microscopic techniques (Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov mean fields, collective hamiltonians and projection methods) can be applied to the description of the octupole degree of freedom. These calculations have been carried out with the finite range, density dependent and parameter free Gogny force. The author mainly focuses on the technical details of the calculations but a few representative examples from actual calculations will be given. Preliminary results showing the relevance of angular momentum projection in the calculation of transition probabilities will be discussed