Nuclear structure studies of 177,178,179,181Ta using (3He, d) and (α, t) reactions

176,178,180Hf(3He, d) angular distributions and 176,178,180Hf(α, t) spectra were measured using 32 MeV 3He and 30 MeV α particles at the University of Rochester MP tandem van de Graaff accelerator laboratory. Reaction products were analyzed with an Enge split-pole magnetic spectrograph. New nuclear structure information is reported for each of the residual nuclides 177,179,181Ta, and the systematic behavior of bands based on the 7/2+[404], 9/2−[514], 5/2+[402], 1/2−[541], 1/2+[411] and 1/2−[530] bands can now be observed. Some limited measurements of the same reactions on a target of 177Hf, taken to facilitate identification of isotopic impurity peaks in the main spectra, provide useful new structure information and a proton separation energy for 178Ta.