Low-energy E1 strength in select nuclei: Possible constraints on the neutron skins and the symmetry energy

Correlations between low-lying electric dipole (E1) strength and neutron skin thickness are systematically investigated with the fully self-consistent random-phase approximation using the Skyrme energy functionals. The presence of strong correlation among these quantities is currently under dispute. We find that the strong correlation is present in properly selected nuclei, namely in spherical neutron-rich nuclei in the region where the neutron Fermi levels are located at orbits with low orbital angular momenta. The significant correlation between the fraction of the energy-weighted sum value and the slope of the symmetry energy is also observed. The deformation in the ground state seems to weaken the correlation.