Physical Review C | 2021
First measurement of proton decay from a transfer reaction to \nNa21
Abstract
Decay protons from excited states in $^{21}\\mathrm{Na}$ populated through a previously reported $^{24}\\mathrm{Mg}(p,\\ensuremath{\\alpha})^{21}\\mathrm{Na}$ transfer reaction [Cha et al., Phys. Rev. C 96, 025810 (2017)] were analyzed to extract the proton branching ratios of the energy levels. By utilizing 31-MeV proton beams from the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and isotopically enriched $^{24}\\mathrm{Mg}$ solid targets, the decay protons were detected in coincidence with $\\ensuremath{\\alpha}$ particles from the $(p,\\ensuremath{\\alpha})$ reaction using a silicon strip detector array. Proton decay branching ratios of several $^{21}\\mathrm{Na}$ levels were deduced for the $p0$ and $p1$ decay channels to the ground and first excited states in $^{20}\\mathrm{Ne}$, respectively.