Abstract
The region of the nuclear chart surrounding the doubly-magic nucleus 208Pb provides a key area to constrain and develop contemporary nuclear structure models. One aspect of particular interest is the transition strength of the first excited 2+ state in even-even nuclei; this work describes the measurement of this value for the case of 206Hg, where the Z=80 line meets the N=126 shell closure. The nuclei of interest were synthesized using relativistic-energy projectile fragmentation at the GSI facility in Germany. They were produced in the fragmentation of a primary 208Pb beam at an energy of 1 GeV per nucleon, and separated and identifed using the Fragment Separator. The secondary beams with an energy of 140 MeV per nucleon were Coulomb excited on a secondary target of 400 mg/cm^2 gold. Gamma-rays were detected with the Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA). The precise scattering angle for Doppler-correction was determined with position information from the Lund-York-Cologne-CAlorimeter(LYCCA). Using the sophisticated tracking algorithm native to AGATA in conjunction with pulse-shape analysis, a precise Doppler-correction is performed on the gamma spectra, and using a complex n-dimensional analysis, the B(E2) value for 206Hg is extracted relative to the known value also measured in 206Pb. A total of 409 million 206Hg particles were measured, and a cross-section of 50 mb was determined for the 2+ state at 1068 keV. The measurement of the B(E2) transition strength was found to be 1.109 W.u. This result is compared to a number of theoretical calculations, including two Gogny forces, and a modified shell model parametrization and is found to be smaller than all calculated estimations, implying that the first excited 2$^+$ state in $^{206}$Hg is uncollective in nature.