Evidence for α-particle condensation in nuclei from the Hoyle state deexcitation

The fragmentation of quasi-projectiles from the nuclear reaction 40Ca + 12C at 25 MeV/nucleon was used to produce excited states candidates to α-particle condensation. Complete kinematic characterization of individual decay events, made possible by a high-granularity 4π charged particle multi-detector, reveals that 7.5±4.0% of the particle decays of the Hoyle state correspond to direct decays in three equal-energy α-particles.