Pairing in spherical nuclei: quasi-particle random phase approximation calculations with the Gogny interaction

Abstract: We investigate the effects of the pairing in spherical nuclei. We use the same finite-range interaction of Gogny type in the three steps of our approach, Hartree-Fock, Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer, and quasi-particle random phase approximation calculations. We study electric and magnetic dipole, quadrupole and octuple excitations in oxygen and calcium isotopes and also in isotopes with 20 neutrons. We investigate the pairing effects on single particle energies and occupation probabilities, on the excitation energies, $B$-values and collectivity of low-lying states including the isoscalar electric dipole and the magnetic dipole excitations, and also the giant resonances. The inclusion of the pairing increases the values of the excitation energies in all the cases we have studied. In general, the effects of the pairing are too small to remarkably improve the agreement with the available experimental data.