Rotational level structure of sodium isotopes inside the "island of inversion"

Abstract

The neutron-rich nuclei 33,34,35Na were studied via in-beam γ-ray spectroscopy following nucleon removal reactions from a 36Mg secondary beam at ~220 MeV/u. Excited states of 34,35Na are reported for the first time. A third transition was observed for 33Na in addition to the known 7/2+ 1 → 5/2+ 1 → 3/2+ g.s. cascade and is suggested to be the 9/2+ 1 → 7/2+ 1 transition. Similarly, a 7/2+ 1 → 5/2+ 1 → 3/2+ g.s. cascade is proposed for the decay pattern observed for 35Na. The transition energy ratios are close to expectation values for K = 3/2 rotational bands in the strong coupling limit. Comparisons to large-scale shell model calculations in the sd-p f model space support the spin-parity assignments. © The Author(s) 2014.