Vector analyzing powers for the reaction to a transitional nucleus 147Nd

The [Formula: see text] reaction has been studied using 17 MeV deuterons with a vector polarization of ~0.75 from the McMaster University tandem Van de Graaff accelerator. Measurements were made at 18 angles from 6° to 57.5° using a magnetic spectrograph equipped with a position-sensitive proportional counter in the focal plane. It was found that the [Formula: see text] reaction is a very powerful technique for spin determinations in this mass region as the vector analyzing powers have quite large magnitudes. A DWBA calculation with optical model parameters previously optimized to fit cross-section angular distributions was also successful in predicting the analyzing powers for states of known spin and parity. The measured analyzing powers made it possible to give unambiguous spin assignments for over 15 states for which spin information was previously conflicting, incomplete, or lacking.