Gamma Radiation from Magnesium-26 under Proton Bombardment

Abstract

Thin targets of ${\mathrm{Mg}}^{26}$ were bombarded with protons from a Van de Graaff generator. Fifteen well-defined resonance peaks were found in the proton energy region between 300 and 1500 kev. These resonances were attributed to the reaction ${\mathrm{Mg}}^{26}(p, \gamma ){\mathrm{Al}}^{27}$. The maxima of the resonances occur at proton energies of 343, 450, 662, 720, 813, 840, 954, 992, 1015, 1056, 1172, 1255, 1295, 1425, and 1464 kev. Measurement of the gamma-ray energies from some of the stronger resonances indicate that the compound nuclei do not in most cases decay to the ground state by a single transition.