Large collectivity of Mg-34

The highly neutron-rich nucleus Mg-34 has been studied via Coulomb excitati on using a radioactive 34Mg beam at 44.9 MeV/nucleon with a Pb target. The B(E2; O-g.s.(+) --> 2(1)(+)) value for the previously proposed 2(1)(+) stat e in Mg-34 was determined for the first time to be 631(126) e(2) fm(4). Thi s value corresponds to the quadrupole deformation parameter beta (2) of 0.5 8(6), implying an anomalously large deformation of Mg-34. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.