Studying Low-Lying States of $^{\mathrm{9}}$B with a Super-Enge Split-Pole Spectrograph (SE-SPS)

We used the single-particle transfer reaction, $^{\mathrm{10}}$B($^{\mathrm{3}}$He, $\alpha )$, to investigate the structure of the light, neutron-deficient nucleus $^{\mathrm{9}}$B. We are interested in $^{\mathrm{9}}$B specifically because years of previous efforts have yet to agree on definitive results for the energy, width, and spin-parity of its first-excited state. Over the years, there have been many attempts to measure the energy and width of this state of $^{\mathrm{9}}$B, which is thought to be the mirror of the first-excited state of $^{\mathrm{9}}$Be. However, because this is a difficult state to populate, the experimental results vary between 0.7 to 1.8 MeV for the energy and 0.3 to 1.5 MeV for the width. We performed the $^{\mathrm{10}}$B($^{\mathrm{3}}$He,$\alpha )$ reaction with the tandem accelerator at Florida State University. A 24-MeV $^{\mathrm{3}}$He beam was incident on an isotopically enriched self-supporting $^{\mathrm{10}}$B target. Alpha particles were momentum-analyzed by the new SE-SPS and detected at the focal plane while protons were detected by Double-Sided Silicon Strip Detectors at backward angles. Data was taken every 5 degrees between 5 degrees and 35 degrees in the laboratory frame. Preliminary results will be presented.