Collectivity of ^30,31Na studied via Heavy-Ion Inelastic Scattering

Near the beta stability line, nuclei with magic numbers are expected to exhibit spherical ground states, accompanied by reduced B(E2) values for low-lying state excitations. However, as we approach the neutron-rich region, the so-called island of inversion, along the N=20 magic number, unexpected behavior has been suggested by the enhancement in measured B(E2) values and ground-state quadrupole moments. Such measurements enable us to test theoretical models utilizing particle-hole excitations between the sd and fp shells to describe collective behavior within this region, allowing a comparison to be made with experiment. A heavy-ion inelastic scattering measurement on neutron-rich ^30,31Na isotopes at N=19,20 was conducted at the NSCL with a modified recoil distance setup utilizing the TRIPLEX plunger, GRETINA, and the S800 spectrograph. We measured the E2 transition rates within members of suggested rotational bands for the K=2, 2⁺ ground-state in ³⁰Na and the K=3/2, 3/2⁽⁺⁾ ground-state in ³¹Na. This allows us to further discern the role of collective modes in the low-lying transitions and the extent of ground-state deformation near N=20. A preliminary result of the experimental cross sections for ^30,31Na will be presented alongside a discussion on extracted B(E2) values with available theoretical calculations.