Evgeny Epelbaum, Hermann Krebs, Timo Lähde, Dean Lee, Ulf-G. Meißner
The Hoyle state is one of the most interesting and important challenges in nuclear physics. This excited state of the 12C nucleus plays a key role in the fusion of three alpha particles to form carbon in red giant stars. In this letter we present ab initio lattice calculations which unravel the structure of this state and find evidence for a low-lying spin-2 rotational excitation. For the structure of the 12C ground state and first spin-2 state, we find a compact triangular configuration of alpha clusters. For the Hoyle state and second spin-2 state, we find a bent-arm or obtuse triangular configuration of alpha clusters. We calculate electromagnetic transition rates among the various low-lying states.
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http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.1328
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