Experimental study of nuclei in the vicinity of the "island of inversion" through the fusion-evaporation reaction

We report the observation of high-spin states in nuclei in the vicinity of the 'island of inversion', populated via the {sup 18}O+{sup 18}O fusion reaction at an incident beam energy of 34 MeV. The fusion reaction mechanism circumvents the limitations of other reactions used so far to populate excited states in these nuclei. The level structures of {sup 33,34}P and {sup 33}S have been investigated and their level schemes were substantially extended. The intensities and branching ratios of the {gamma} transitions were measured. The observed {gamma} coincidence intensity anisotropy and polarization asymmetry were analyzed for a consistent assignment of the spins and parities of the nuclear levels. The 1876-keV transition in {sup 34}P that had an ambiguous multipolarity assignment has been confirmed to be a mixed transition. Truncated (1p-1h) shell model calculations within the 'sdpf' valence space were performed. These calculations reproduce the experimental excitation energies of {sup 34}P but fail to explain the observed mixing ratio for the 1876-keV transition.