Structure and rotations of the Hoyle state

Abstract

The excited state of the 12C nucleus known as the "Hoyle state" constitutes one of the most interesting, difficult and timely challenges in nuclear physics, as it plays a key role in the production of carbon via fusion of three alpha particles in red giant stars. In this letter, we present ab initio lattice calculations which unravel the structure of the Hoyle state, along with evidence for a low-lying spin-2 rotational excitation. For the 12C ground state and the first excited spin-2 state, we find a compact triangular configuration of alpha clusters. For the Hoyle state and the second excited spin-2 state, we find a "bent-arm" or obtuse triangular configuration of alpha clusters. We also calculate the electromagnetic transition rates between the low-lying states of 12C.

4 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, version to be published in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (12)

• Modern Theory of Nuclear Forces
• Alpha cluster condensation in 12C and 16O
• Ab initio calculation of the Hoyle state
• Lattice simulations for few- and many-body systems
• Similarity-Transformed Chiral NN+3N Interactions for the Ab Initio Description of 12-C and 16-O
• Lattice effective field theory calculations for A = 3,4,6,12 nuclei
• Pair decay width of the Hoyle state and carbon production in stars
• Nuclear Lattice Simulations with Chiral Effective Field Theory
• Lattice calculations for A=3,4,6,12 nuclei using chiral effective field theory
• Nuclear Matter on a Lattice
• Lattice chiral effective field theory with three-body interactions at next-to-next-to-leading order
• No evidence of an 11.16 MeV 2+ state in 12C

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