  The charge-exchange excitations in nuclei are studied within the fully
self-consistent proton-neutron quasiparticle random-phase approximation using
the finite-range Gogny interaction. No additional parameters beyond those
included in the effective nuclear force are included. Axially symmetric
deformations are consistently taken into account, both in the description of
the ground states and spin-isospin excitations. We focus on the isobaric analog
and Gamow-Teller resonances. A comparison of the predicted strength
distributions to the existing experimental data is presented and the role of
nuclear deformation analyzed. The Gamow-Teller strength is used to estimate the
beta-decay half-life of nuclei for which experimental data exist. A
satisfactory agreement with experimental half-lives is found and justifies the
additional study of the exotic neutron-rich N=82, 126 and 184 isotonic chains
of relevance for the r-process nucleosynthesis.
