High-spin states in26Mg

Theγ-decays of levels in²⁶Mg have been investigated up to 12.5 MeV excitation energy by proton-γ-ray coincidence measurements in the²³Na(α, pγ) reaction at 14.2 and 16 MeV bombarding energy. Lifetime-measurements, made with the Doppler-shift attenuation method, and proton-γ-ray angular-correlation measurements were performed at E_α=14.2 MeV. Many high-spin states were observed, among them levels at 6,978 (5⁺), 7,283(4^?), 7,395(5⁺), 7,953(5^?), 8,202(6⁺), 8,472(6⁺), 9,065(5), 9,112(6⁺), 9,169(6^?), 9,383 (6⁺), 9,542(5), 9,829(7⁺), 9,989(6⁺) and 12,479(8⁺, 7^?) keV excitation energy. The spectrum of positive-parity states and their electromagnetic properties are reproduced with good accuracy by shell-model calculations which employ a unifieds-d shell Hamiltonian and the unrestricted configuration space of the 0d _5/2 1s _1/2 0d _3/2 shell. Members of five inferred rotational bands, withK ^π=0⁺, 2⁺, 3⁺, 0⁺ and 3^? have been observed up to at leastI=6. TheK ^π=2⁺ band shows strong anomalies of excitation energies andE2 transition rates near theI=6 state. The static intrinsic quadrupole moments calculated from the shell model wave functions indicate transitions from prolate to oblate deformation within theK ^π=2⁺ band and also the ground state band. The lowest lyingI ^π=4⁺ state appears to be “spherical” and cannot be associated with a rotational band.