Excitation of giant electric isovector resonances in pion charge exchange reactions

Pion single charge-exchange reactions exciting giant electric isovector resonances are studied for a series of nuclei. The reaction mechanism is treated in the distorted-wave impulse approximation. Emphasis is put on the nuclear structure aspects probed in these reactions. Transition densities for charge-exchange excitations are calculated using the sum-rule method and microscopically, in the Hartree-Fockrandom-phase-approximation framework. The resulting cross sections are sensitive to the nuclear structure input. Double differential cross sections as functions of the nuclear excitation energy are calculated. NUCLEAR REACTIONS Pion single charge exchange exciting giant isovector resonances.