Abstract: In atomic nuclei, the term ​“pygmy dipole resonance” (PDR) has been commonly used for the electric dipole (E1) strength around and below the neutron-separation energy. It has been shown that the PDR strength strongly impacts neutron-cap­ture rates in the s- and r-process, which synthesize the majority of heavy elements in our universe. A precise understanding of the PDR’s microscopic structure is essential to pin down how it con­tributes to the gamma-ray strength function (γSF) often used to calculate the neutron-cap­ture rates. In fact, the different responses to isovector and isoscalar probes proved the ​“complex” structure of the PDR and emphasized that different underlying structures would indeed need to be disentangled experimentally if stringent comparisons to microscopic mod­els wanted to be made.

In this seminar talk, I will present an overview on current experimental work and results on the PDR, which will also feature our recent study of the PDR in ²⁰⁸Pb via one-neutron transfer and inelastic proton scattering via isobaric analog resonances. I will close with an outlook including an experi­mental program starting at Florida State University, and possible ways forward for experiments at the Facility for Rare-Isotope Beams and other facilities.