Nuclear isovector valence-shell excitation of 202Hg

Excited states of Hg-202 have been studied via the C-12 (Hg-202, Hg-202*) Coulomb excitation reaction at a beam energy of 890 MeV. The gamma-ray transitions from the excited states of Hg-202 were detected by the Gammasphere array. The intensities of the observed gamma rays determined the relative populations of the excited states which were used to extract the absolute M1 and E2 transition strength distributions for excited 2(+) states of Hg-202 up to 2 MeV. The measured absolute B(M1; 2(7)(+) -> 2(1)(+)) strength of 0.18(8)mu(2)(N) indicates that the 2(7)(+) level of Hg-202 is the main fragment of the proton-neutron mixed-symmetry 2(1,ms)(+) state. Upper limits for the F-spin mixing matrix elements of Hg-202,(204) are determined as well.