Gamma Rays from Ne

The decay scheme of the low-lying excited states of ${\mathrm{Ne}}^{22}$ has been investigated by means of a proton gamma-ray coincidence study of the ${\mathrm{F}}^{19}(\ensuremath{\alpha}, p){\mathrm{Ne}}^{22}$ reaction using a NaI(Tl) gamma-ray scintillation spectrometer. The excitation energies of the second and third excited states were rechecked and found to be 3.3 and 4.9 Mev, respectively. The results cast considerable doubt on the existence of the previously reported level at 0.6 Mev. For the 1.28-Mev excited state a single transition to the ground state was identified. The second excited state was found to decay principally by a cascade transition through the first excited state, although a weaker crossover transition direct to the ground state was also observed. The third excited state was found to decay through transitions to both the first excited and ground states. A discussion of possible spin and parity assignments by means of the Weisskopf relations is presented.