MEASUREMENT AND SIGNIFICANCE OF GAMMA(GAMMA GAMMA FOR THE 7117-KEV 4+LEVEL OF O-18/

The excited 4+ state at 7117 keV in O-18 is studied via the C-12(Li-7, pgamma)O-18 reaction. We show that it is highly improbable that the st ate is energetically degenerate with a state of different decay proper ties and that its gamma decay is consistent with previously reported v alues. We obtain a gamma-branching fraction GAMMA(gamma)/(GAMMA(gamma) +GAMMA(alpha)) = 0.561+/-0.013 which together with recent results for other decay properties gives a B(E2) value of 6.4+/-1.6 W.u. for the 4 p-2h intraband transition 7117 4(2)+ --> 5260 2(3)+. Shell-model calcu lations in a full (0+2)homegaBAR basis supplement a previous SU3-trunc ated (0+2)homegaBAR calculation to the effect that the calculations re sult in a considerably more collective B(E2) value of >15 W.u. for thi s transition leaving a rather puzzling discrepancy between experiment and theory.