Momentum distributions of α particles from decaying low-lying C12 resonances

Abstract

The complex scaled hyperspherical adiabatic expansion method is used to compute momentum and energy distributions of the three α particles emerging from the decay of low-lying C12 resonances. The large distance continuum properties of the wave functions are crucial and must be accurately calculated. We discuss separately decays of natural-parity states: two 0+, one 1-, three 2+, one 3-, two 4+, one 6+, and one of each of unnatural parity 1+,2-,3+,4-. The lowest natural-parity state of each Jπ decays predominantly sequentially via the Be8 ground state, whereas other states, including unnatural-parity states, predominantly decay directly to the continuum. We present Dalitz plots and systematic detailed momentum correlations of the emerging α particles. © 2008 The American Physical Society.