Giant Gamow-Teller resonance: 40 Years after the prediction

A brief survey of the physics of the giant Gamow-Teller resonance, from the history of its prediction and the first attempts at theoretically describing it to the present-day state of this realmof nuclear physics, is given. The structure of Gamow-Teller resonances is analyzed within the theory of finite Fermi systems. Simple expressions for the energy of the Gamow-Teller resonance and for the matrix elements of its excitation are derived via approximately solving the equations of this theory by the semiclassicalmethod. The calculated values of the energy difference between the Gamow-Teller resonance and the analogous resonance are found to be in good agreement with their experimental counterparts. Strength functions for the beta decay of neutron-rich nuclei, S _β (E), are analyzed, and the calculated values of S _β (E) are contrasted against relevant experimental data.