Measurement of the entry-spin distribution imparted to the high excitation continuum region of gadolinium nuclei via (,) and (,) reactions

Ross, T. J.*; Beausang, C. W.*; Hughes, R. O.*; Allmond, J. M.*; Angell, C.; Basunia, M. S.*; Bleuel, D. L.*; Burke, J. T.*; Casperson, R. J.*; Escher, J. E.*; Fallon, P.*; Hatarik, R.*; Munson, J.*; Paschalis, S.*; Petri, M.*; Phair, L.*; Ressler, J. J.*; Scielzo, N. D.*; Thompson, I. J.*

The surrogate reaction technique has been employed to cross sections in the actinide region to a precision of 20%, but in the rare earth region a factor of 2-3 discrepancy exists between the directly measured and extracted surrogate cross sections. A possible origin of this discrepancy lies in differences between the initial spin/parity population distribution. To investigate this, the angular momentum transfer of the surrogate reaction in Gd nuclei has been measured.