Isoscalar dipole excitations in $^{16}$O

Abstract

Isoscalar (IS) monopole and dipole excitations in $^{16}$O were investigated by the method of shifted basis antisymmetrized molecular dynamics combined with the generator coordinate method. Significant strengths of the IS monopole and dipole transitions were obtained in the low-energy region below the giant resonances. In addition to the compressive mode, which mainly contributes to the high-energy strengths for the IS dipole giant resonance, we obtained a variety of low-energy dipole modes such as the vortical dipole mode in the $1^-_1$ state of the vibrating tetrahedral $4α$ and the $^{12}$C+$α$ cluster structure in the $1^-_2$ state. The $1^-_1$ state contributes to the significant low-energy strength of the IS dipole transition as 5\% of the energy-weighted sum rule, which describes well the experimental data observed by the $α$ inelastic scattering.