Ab Initio Calculation of the Hoyle State
Abstract
The Hoyle state plays a crucial role in the helium burning of stars heavier than our Sun and in the production of carbon and other elements necessary for life. This excited state of the carbon-12 nucleus was postulated by Hoyle as a necessary ingredient for the fusion of three alpha particles to produce carbon at stellar temperatures. Although the Hoyle state was seen experimentally more than a half century ago nuclear theorists have not yet uncovered the nature of this state from first principles. In this Letter we report the first ab initio calculation of the low-lying states of carbon-12 using supercomputer lattice simulations and a theoretical framework known as effective field theory. In addition to the ground state and excited spin-2 state, we find a resonance at -85(3)MeV with all of the properties of the Hoyle state and in agreement with the experimentally observed energy.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- May 2011
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.192501
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1101.2547
- Bibcode:
- 2011PhRvL.106s2501E
- Keywords:
-
- 21.10.Dr;
- 21.45.-v;
- 21.60.De;
- 26.20.Fj;
- Binding energies and masses;
- Few-body systems;
- Ab initio methods;
- Stellar helium burning;
- Nuclear Theory;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- High Energy Physics - Lattice;
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;
- Nuclear Experiment
- E-Print:
- 4 pp, 3 eps figs, version accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters