Spectroscopy of actinides

Nuclear structure of heavy deformed nuclei is dominated by the interplay of collective and single-particle excitations. In the actinide region the octupol degree of freedom has to be added. There is still no satisfying theoretical description which includes all this. Experiments were performed at the Munich Q3D spectrometer utilizing the direct transfer reactions (vector d,p) and (vector d,t) to study the isotones 231Th, 232Pa and 233U and the isotope 230Pa. The use of the polarized deuteron beam enables to deduce not only the orbital angular momentum transfer Δl but also the angular distribution of the analyzing power. This provides direct access to the total angular momentum transfer Δj. For the two odd-odd nuclei 230Pa and 232Pa first time results on excited states will be presented. Several new spin and parity assignments were obtained for the well known isotopes 231Th and 233U as a basis of future theoretical investigations in this mass region.