Study of the Gamow-Teller resonance in 90Nb and 208Bi

An approach is proposed for studying the spreading properties of the Gamow-Teller resonance (GTR) in heavy nuclei including the coupling to 2p2h configurations and the ground-state correlations beyond RPA. The GTR is generated by a proton p-neutron h (πp-νh) phonon within the renormalized RPA. The second-order configuration mixing beyond RPA is realized by constructing two-phonon configurations, in which one of two intermediate phonon states is a πp-νh phonon. The numerical calculations are performed in the parent nuclei 90Zr and 208Pb making use of M3Y nucleon-nucleon interaction and the single-particle wave functions obtained in the standard harmonic oscillator potential. The single-particle energies around the Fermi surface are substituted with the empirical values or those given by a Woods-Saxon potential. The results obtained provide a reasonable account for recent experimental findings on the GTR in these nuclei. The extension of the present approach to highly excited (hot) nuclei is also provided. The GTR is found to be stable against temperatures up to T=6 MeV. (orig.)