High-Precision Probe of the Fully Sequential Decay Width of the Hoyle State in <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">C</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mprescripts/><mml:none/><mml:mrow><mml:mn>12</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:mmultiscripts></mml:mrow></mml:math>

The decay path of the Hoyle state in ^{12}C (E_{x}=7.654 MeV) has been studied with the ^{14}N(d,α_{2})^{12}C(7.654) reaction induced at 10.5 MeV. High resolution invariant mass spectroscopy techniques have allowed us to unambiguously disentangle direct and sequential decays of the state passing through the ground state of ^{8}Be. Thanks to the almost total absence of background and the attained resolution, a fully sequential decay contribution to the width of the state has been observed. The direct decay width is negligible, with an upper limit of 0.043% (95% C.L.). The precision of this result is about a factor 5 higher than previous studies. This has significant implications on nuclear structure, as it provides constraints to 3α cluster model calculations, where higher precision limits are needed.