Relativistic Coulomb excitation within the time dependent superfluid local density approximation.

Within the framework of the unrestricted time-dependent density functional theory, we present for the first time an analysis of the relativistic Coulomb excitation of the heavy deformed open shell nucleus (238)U. The approach is based on the superfluid local density approximation formulated on a spatial lattice that can take into account coupling to the continuum, enabling self-consistent studies of superfluid dynamics of any nuclear shape. We compute the energy deposited in the target nucleus as a function of the impact parameter, finding it to be significantly larger than the estimate using the Goldhaber-Teller model. The isovector giant dipole resonance, the dipole pygmy resonance, and giant quadrupole modes are excited during the process. The one-body dissipation of collective dipole modes is shown to lead a damping width Γ(↓)≈0.4  MeV and the number of preequilibrium neutrons emitted has been quantified.