A study of spin-parity assignments in 18Ne using the 20Ne(p,t)18Ne reaction

Several key states in ¹⁸Ne[Neon-18] affect the reaction rate of the astrophysically-important ¹⁴O[Oxygen-14](α[Alpha],p)¹⁷F[Fluorine-17] reaction, important for breakout of the Hot-CNO cycle and key to the ignition of Type-I X-ray bursts. Currently, a direct measurement of the ¹⁴O(α,p)¹⁷F reaction cross section is extremely difficult. Instead, calculation of the stellar reaction rate depends on the parameters of the states in the fusion product nucleus ¹⁸Ne, which can be studied indirectly through transfer reactions. With the development of the Jet Experiments in Nuclear Structure and Astrophysics (JENSA) gas jet system, targets of pure gas are achievable, opening new avenues for studies with transfer reactions. In order to investigate states in ¹⁸Ne, the ²⁰Ne[Neon-20](p,t)¹⁸Ne reaction was utilized with a pure neon target from the JENSA system and an array of highly-segmented silicon strip detectors. Distorted wave Born-approximation (DWBA) calculations were then compared to experimental angular distributions, and a number of spin-parity assignments are made for states in ¹⁸Ne.