Coulomb excitation of radioactive Na21 and its stable mirror Ne21

The low-energy structures of the mirror nuclei Ne21 and radioactive Na21 have been examined by using Coulomb excitation at the TRIUMF-ISAC radioactive ion beam facility. Beams of ~5×106 ions/s were accelerated to 1.7 MeV/A and Coulomb excited in a 0.5 mg/cm2 natTi target. Scattered beam and target particles were detected by the segmented Si detector BAMBINO, while γ rays were observed by using two TIGRESS HPGe clover detectors perpendicular to the beam axis. For each isobar, Coulomb excitation from the 32+ ground state to the first excited 52+ state was observed and B(E2) values were determined by using the 2+→0+ de-excitation in Ti48 as a reference. The ϕ segmentation of BAMBINO was used to deduce tentative assignments for the signs of the mixing ratios between the E2 and M1 components of the transitions. The resulting B(E2)↑ values are 131±9 e2 fm4 (25.4±1.7 W.u.) for Ne21 and 205±14 e2 fm4 (39.7±2.7 W.u.) for Na21. The fit to the present data and the known lifetimes determined E2/M1 mixing ratios and B(M1)↓ values of δ=(-)0.0767±0.0027 and 0.1274±0.0025 μN2 and δ=(+)0.0832±0.0028 and 0.1513±0.0017 μN2 for Ne21 and Na21, respectively (with Krane and Steffen sign convention). By using the effective charges ep=1.5e and en=0.5e, the B(E2) values produced by the p-sd shell model are 30.7 and 36.4 W.u. for Ne21 and Na21, respectively. This analysis resolves a significant discrepancy between a previous experimental result for Na21 and shell-model calculations.