Microscopic description of the elusive Hoyle state

Within a symmetry-guided shell-model framework and using a fraction of the model space extended beyond current no-core shell-model limits along with a schematic effective many-nucleon interaction, we gain new insights into the many-body dynamics that give rise to the ground state and low-lying 0+ states of 12C and 16O. In particular, we gain further understanding of the alpha-clustering nature of the challenging Hoyle state and its first 2+ excitation in 12C, as well as the corresponding states in 16O. This provides guidance for ab initio shell models by informing key features of the underlying nuclear structure and interaction.