Abstract
| It is proposed to investigate the structure of excited states in $^{68, 70}$Ni(Z =28, N=40, 42) via the measurement of electromagnetic matrix elements in a Coulomb excitation experiment in order to study the N = 40 harmonic-oscillator shell and the Z = 28 proton shell closures. The measured B(E2) values connecting low-lying 0$^{+}$ and 2$^{+}$ can be compared to shell-model predictions. It is also proposed to perform the one-neutron transfer reaction ${d}$($^{68}$Ni,$^{69}$Ni)${p}$, with the aim of populating excited states in $^{69}$Ni. Comparisons with the states populated in the recently performed ${d}$($^{66}$Ni,$^{67}$Ni)${p}$ reaction will be useful in determining the role of the neutron $d_{5/2}$ orbital in the semi-magic properties of $^{68}$Ni. |