giant dipole resonances can be caused by any mechanism that imparts enough energy to the nucleus. classical causes are irradiation with gamma rays at energies from 7 to 40 mev, which couple to nuclei and either cause or increase the dipole moment of the nucleus by adding energy that separates charges in the nucleus. the process is the inverse of gamma decay, but the energies involved are typically much larger, and the dipole moments induced are larger than occur in the excited nuclear states that cause the average gamma decay.