Structure of T=2 24Ne from 14C on 14C -: art. no. 034304

The C-14(C-14,alpha) reaction at 22 MeV was used to study T=2 Ne-24. Charged particles were detected with a Si detector telescope at 0degrees, and gamma transitions in coincidence were detected with an array of three Compton-suppressed "clover" detectors and seven Compton-suppressed single Ge crystals. The alpha-gamma and alpha-gamma-gamma coincidence data were analyzed to study the structure of Ne-24. Twenty-two new gamma lines were assigned to 14 new levels. Angular distribution measurements provided spin assignments and restrictions to a number of levels. Likely candidates were found for the lowest 5(+) and 6(+) levels. All but one of the 12 states predicted to lie below 6 MeV by shell model calculations using the universal s-d interaction were observed. The rms deviation in excitation energies among these is 190 keV, and there is a tendency for the observed levels to lie somewhat higher than the predicted ones. A comparison of the structure of Ne-24 with its neighbors suggests a significant shell gap above the nud(5/2) orbital in agreement with the large d(5/2)-s(1/2) gap implied by the effective single-particle energies in the universal s-d shell model interaction.