The12C* Hoyle state in the inelastic12C +12C reaction and in 24Mg* decay

The reaction 12 C + 12 C at 95 MeV has been studied at the Legnaro Laboratories
of INFN with the GARFIELD + RCo apparatus. Data have been analyzed
in order to investigate the decay of the Hoyle state of 12 C* . Two different
data selections have been made. The fi rst one corresponds to peripheral binary
collisions where the quasi-projectile is excited to the Hoyle state and the target
has been left in the ground state. The second selection allows for studying
central events with the formation of a 24 Mg* and the Hoyle state is obtained as
a step of the decay chain. The characteristics of the Hoyle state decay are very
similar in the two samples and point to a mainly sequential decay through the
population of an intermediate 8 Begs , with a small contribution (∼ 1.1%) from
simultaneous three α -particle processes.