Emergence of the N=16 shell gap in O21

Abstract

The spectroscopy of O21 has been investigated using a radioactive O20 beam and the (d,p) reaction in inverse kinematics. The ground and first excited states have been determined to be Jπ=5/2+ and 1/2+, respectively. Two neutron unbound states were observed at excitation energies of 4.77(10) and 6.17(11) MeV. The spectroscopic factor deduced for the lower of these, interpreted as a 3/2+ level, reveals a relatively pure (60%) 0d3/2 single-particle configuration, in good agreement with shell-model calculations that predict O26 to be unbound. The large energy difference between the 3/2+ and 1/2+ states is indicative of the emergence of the N=16 shell gap, which is estimated to be 5.1(11) MeV. For the higher-lying resonance, which has a character consistent with a spin-parity assignment of 3/2+ or 7/2-, a 0.71(22) branching ratio to the first 2+ state in O20 has been observed. © 2011 American Physical Society.