Spectroscopy of 42Ca from 41Ca(d,p)

Energy levels in ⁴²Ca up to 7.8 MeV have been studied in the neutron capture reaction ⁴¹Ca(d, p)⁴²Ca with 12 MeV bombarding energy. Ninety-four excited states have been identified and angular distributions have been measured in the interval from 5° to 110° by means of a broad-range magnetic spectrograph. The angular distributions together with DW calculations have been used to determine I_n values and spectroscopic factors. The $\text{f}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>7</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$ strength sum agrees with shell-model expectations if the f_{$\text{7}\text{2}$} spectroscopic factors are renormalized by $\text{1}\text{0.75}$, in line with other $\text{f}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>7</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$. transfer experiments on ⁴⁰Ca and ⁴¹Ca. A similar renormalization of the l_n = 1 spectroscopic factors brings this strength sum in accordance with the shell-model calculations. The effective ($\text{f}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>7</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}{}^2$) matrix elements for ⁴²Ca are compared with the corresponding matrix elements of ⁴²Sc and ⁴⁸Sc. The differences between the three sets of matrix elements are of the order of a few hundred keV or less. The monopole centroid energy of the ($\text{f}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>7</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{)}{}^2$ multiplet is shifted downwards in the mass-42 nuclei compared to ⁴⁸Sc, possibly indicating the importance of the monopole pairing force near ⁴⁰Ca.