Second-Order Coulomb Excitation via the Giant Dipole Resonance

The contributions to the Coulomb excitation probability due to virtual electric dipole transitions into the giant resonance have been studied. Use has been made of the fact that the second-order transition amplitude can be related to the photonuclear absorption cross section which is known experimentally. Two examples are discussed in some detail: (1) The Coulomb excitation of a first-excited $0^{+}$ level from a $0^{+}$ ground state; (2) second-order corrections to a $0^{+}$ → $2^{+}$ transition. In the latter case, the corrections are of the same order of magnitude as those due to the reorientation effect which has been proposed as a means to measure the quadrupole moment of excited states.