Investigation of the Hoyle state in12C with a new hodoscope detector

The 0+2 state in 12C (7.654MeV, the Hoyle state) is important for the understanding of clustering phenomena in nuclei. The pronounced cluster nature of this state allows the triple-α process in stars with a reaction rate regulated by its structure properties. To precisely estimate the direct component in the 3α decay mechanism of the Hoyle state, we developed a new experiment using the 14N(d,α)12C reaction at 10.5MeV. An anti-coincidence telescope was used to identify the α ejectiles leading the residual 12C in the Hoyle state, while its decays in 3αwere studied by means of a new hodoscope of silicon detectors, superOSCAR, placed in kinematical coincidence to fully reconstruct the events. Details of the experiment and preliminary results are discussed in the text.