The giant resonances in hot nuclei: linear response calculations

We calculate the isovector response function of hot nuclear matter using various effective Skyrme interactions. For Skyrme forces with a small effective mass the strength distribution is found to be nearly independent of temperature, and shows little collective effects. In contrast effective forces with an effective mass close to unity produce sizeable collective effects at zero temperature which disappear at temperatures of a few MeV. We discuss the relevance of these results for the saturation of the multiplicity of photons emitted by the giant dipole resonance in hot nuclei beyond $T$=3 MeV observed in recent experiments.