4th China - South Africa Joint Symposium on Nuclear Physics

Study of the low-lying states in $\superscript^{26}$ Mg nuclei.

Not scheduled

15m

Speaker

Ms Pheladi Molema (witwatersrand)

Description

The study of $^{26}$ Mg level structure is of particular importance in nuclear structure physics because of its impact in the slow neutron capture process (s-process) for the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements up to lead. In fact, the $^{26}$Mg is the compound nucleus for the s-process neutron source $^{22}$Ne (𝛼, n)$^{22}$Mg that is one of the dominant reaction in the s-process. Since it is an endothermic reaction it competes directly with the $^{22}$Ne (𝛼, 𝛾)$^{26}$ Mg radiative capture. Understanding the rate of both of these reactions is crucial for linking the observational evidence of s-process abundance with the internal structure of the stars. The uncertainties in the energy of the $^{26}$ Mg states and the inconclusive spin- parity assessments still lead in large error bars in these reaction rates. In this work, the low-energy states in $^{26}$ Mg were populated using the inelastic scattering of alpha particles with beam energy of 120 MeV. The $^{26}$ Mg (𝛼, 𝛼′𝛾) $^{26}$ Mg measurements can be useful to improve the uncertainties in these rates by studying and extracting the characteristics of the excited states of $^{26}$ Mg. The experiment was performed at iThemba LABS research facility using a new designed experimental set-up: the K600 magnetic spectrometer coupled to the BaGeL array (Ball of Germanium and LaBr detectors). This combination was used to perform the coincidence measurements between charged particles and gamma rays. The excitation and the subsequent gamma decay of the $^{26}$ Mg states of interest will be investigated. Preliminary results on the analysis will be presented.