Spin assignments in 59Ni from the 58Ni(d, p)59Ni reaction

Angular distributions of the vector analyzing power and the absolute cross section were measured for the ⁵⁸Ni(d, p)⁵⁹Ni reaction at a deuteron energy of 10 MeV. The observed j-dependence of the vector analyzing power allowed unambiguous spin assignments for the following states in ⁵⁹Ni with excitation energies in $\text{MeV}\text{: 0.0,}\text{3}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{; 0.341,}\text{5}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}$; $\text{0.465,}\text{1}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{; 0.879,}\text{3}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}$; $\text{1.303,}\text{1}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{; 1.686,}\text{5}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{; 3.454,}\text{3}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{; 3.858,}\text{3}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{; 4.495,}\text{5}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{+}}$. The data are well reproduced by DWBA calculations employing deuteron and proton optical model parameters obtained from analyses of elastic scattering cross sections and polarizations. A tentative spin assignment of $\text{9}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{+}}$ is made for the level at 3.061 MeV. A $\text{5}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{+}}$ assignment to the level at 3.538 MeV is suggested on the basis of the empirical behavior of the j-dependence of the vector analyzing power for l = 2 transitions. Measurements of the vector analyzing power for the four low-lying ⁵⁹Ni states formed by l = 1 transfer were made for angles from 2.5° to 15° using a magnetic spectrograph. A very strong j-dependence was observed for these far-forward-angle measurements in agreement with DWBA predictions.