C. Wheldon

New Measurement of the Direct 3α Decay from the 12C Hoyle State

Excited states in certain atomic nuclei possess an unusual structure, where the dominant degrees of freedom are those of α clusters rather than individual nucleons. It has been proposed that the diffuse 3α system of the ^{12}C Hoyle state may behave like a Bose-Einstein condensate, where the α clusters maintain their bosonic identities. By measuring the decay of the Hoyle state into three α particles, we obtained an upper limit for the rare direct 3α decay branch of 0.047%. This value is now at a level comparable with theoretical predictions and could be a sensitive probe of the structure of this state.

ALPHA-CLUSTER STATES POPULATED IN 24Mg + 12C

Charged particle and γ-decays in light α-like nuclei are investigated for 24Mg +12C. Various theoretical predictions for the occurence of superdeformed and hyperdeformed bands associated with resonance structures with low spin are presented. The inverse kinematics reaction 24Mg +12C is studied at Elab(24Mg) = 130 MeV. Exclusive data were collected with the Binary Reaction Spectrometer in coincidence with EUROBALL IV installed at the VIVITRON Tandem facility at Strasbourg. Specific structures with large deformation were selectively populated in binary reactions and their associated γ-decays studied. Coincident events from α-transfer channels were selected by choosing the excitation energy or the entry point via the two-body Q-values. The analysis of the binary reaction channels is presented with a particular emphasis on 20Ne-γ and 16O-γ coincidences.

Characterization of the proposed 4-α cluster state candidate in O 16

CITATION: Li, K. C. W., et al. 2017. Characterization of the proposed 4−α cluster state candidate in ¹⁶O. Physical Review C, 95(3):1-6, doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.95.031302.

Reaction mechanisms in 24Mg+12C and 32S+24Mg

The occurence of “exotic” shapes in light N = Z α‐like nuclei is investigated for 24Mg+12C and 32S+24Mg. Various approaches of superdeformed and hyperdeformed bands associated with quasimolecular resonant structures with low spin are presented. For both reactions, exclusive data were collected with the Binary Reaction Spectrometer in coincidence with EUROBALL IV installed at the VIVITRON Tandem facility of Strasbourg. Specific structures with large deformation were selectively populated in binary reactions and their associated γ‐decays studied. The analysis of the binary and ternary reaction channels is discussed.

Binary reaction decays from Mg 24 + C 12

Charged-particle and

Structure studies of excited states of 17C and 16C

\ensuremath{\gamma}

Search for the alpha + (6)He decay of (10)Be via the (16)O((18)O, (10)Be*)(24)Mg reaction

decays in

Alpha decay widths of excited states of 16O

^{24}\mathrm{Mg}{}^{*}

Refuting The Nature Of The Sixth 0+ Hoyle-analogue State Candidate In 16O

are investigated for excitation energies where quasimolecular resonances appear in

13C+4He resonant elastic scattering on a thick gas target

^{12}\mathrm{C}+^{12}\mathrm{C}