A high-resolution study of levels in the astrophysically important nucleus ^26Mg and resulting updated level assignments

The ^22Ne(α,n)^25Mg reaction is an important source of neutrons for the s-process. Due to the difficulty in directly measuring the cross section of this reaction and the competing ^22Ne(α,γ)^26Mg reaction, indirect methods are frequently used to try to instead calculate the relevant reaction rates. Uncertainty, however, persists in the number and properties of the pertinent excited states of ^26Mg. In this paper, the results of proton and deuteron scattering from ^26Mg are presented, giving a list of levels in ^26Mg. In addition, level assignments in ^26Mg are discussed, including some possible changes to the previously accepted assignments in ^26Mg.