24Mg paper published

Led by Dr. Caleb Marshall, we performed a high-resolution, highly detailed study of excited states in ²⁴Mg using the $^{23}$Na($^3$He,d)$^{24}$Mg proton transfer reaction. This was the first application of our recently-developed Bayesian DWBA analysis methods to our own data, which included coupling of elastic scattering and transfer data with common systematic effects taken into account.

The results of this study provide the most statistically-meaningful proton spectroscopic factor information on ²⁴Mg to date. We investigated the impact of our findings on the nucleosynthesis of ²⁴Mg in Asymptotic Giant Branch stars. These investigations demonstrated the continued importance of both stellar modeling and nuclear physics uncertainties when considering sodium enrichment in globular clusters.

Correlation plot for the Bayesian $^{23}$Na($^3$He,d)$^{24}$Mg analysis showing both discrete and continuous ambiguity effects in the extraction of spectroscopic factors from particle transfer reactions.