Photoexcitation of astrophysically important states in Mg-26. II. Ground-state-transition partial widths

The level structure of Mg-26 near the neutron-separation energy, which is of interest for s-process nucleosynthesis, was studied at the High Intensity Gamma-Ray Source of the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory using the method of nuclear resonance fluorescence. A nearly monoenergetic and linearly polarized gamma-ray beam was used to scan the excitation energy range from 10.5 to 11.7 MeV. For the five states observed, the total widths and partial widths are determined. Precise measurement of these widths is necessary for the prediction of neutron production for the s-process.