Spectroscopy of 32Ne and the Island of Inversion

We report on the first spectroscopic study of the N=22 nucleus Ne-32 at the newly completed RIKEN Radioactive Ion Beam Factory. A single gamma-ray line with an energy of 722(9) keV was observed in both inelastic scattering of a 226 MeV/u Ne-32 beam on a carbon target and proton removal from Na-33 at 245 MeV/u. This transition is assigned to the deexcitation of the first J(pi)=2(+) state in Ne-32 to the 0(+) ground state. Interpreted through comparison with state-of-the-art shell-model calculations, the low excitation energy demonstrates that the island of inversion extends to at least N=22 for the Ne isotopes.