  We study the effect of the spreading widths on the excitation probabilities
of the double giant dipole resonance. We solve the coupled-channels equations
for the excitation of the giant dipole resonance and the double giant dipole
resonance. Taking Pb+Pb collisions as example, we study the resulting effect on
the excitation amplitudes, and cross sections as a function of the width of the
states and of the bombarding energy.
