Electron scattering off the first excited 0+ state in 12C (the Hoyle state) has been performed at low momentum transfers at the S-DALINAC. The new data together with a novel model-independent analysis of the world data set covering a wide momentum transfer range result in a highly improved transition charge density from which a pair decay width Gamma_pi = (62.3 +- 2.0) micro-eV of the Hoyle state was extracted reducing the uncertainty of the literature values by more than a factor of three. A precise knowledge of Gamma_pi is mandatory for quantitative studies of some key issues in the modeling of supernovae and of asymptotic giant branch stars, the most likely site of the slow-neutron nucleosynthesis process.
@article{arxiv.1004.3877,
title = {Pair decay width of the Hoyle state and carbon production in stars},
author = {M. Chernykh and H. Feldmeier and T. Neff and P. von Neumann-Cosel and A. Richter},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1004.3877},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett