Examining the interplay between halo effects and deformation in neutron rich neon isotopes

$^{27}$Ne serves as an excellent test case for understanding the interplay between halo effects and deformation. It is known that the neighboring isotopes $^{26}$Ne and $^{28}$Ne demonstrate substantial deformation, which indicate a potential for deformation in $^{27}$Ne. At the same time, the 1/2+ excited state is expected to have a single valence neutron in the s orbital near the neutron separation energy and therefore is expected to exhibit halo effects. Due to the interplay between the halo and deformation effects, the \textit{M1} transition strength, which is expected to be large because of the deformation, could be severely reduced, while the \textit{E1} transition strength is expected to be large. To examine this effect, precise knowledge of transition rates is required. In this work, the model-independent Recoil Distance Method was employed with fast RI beams to constrain the lifetime of the 1/2+ state down to the lowest achievable limits of precision.