The 12C∗ Hoyle state in the inelastic 12C + 12C reaction and in 24Mg∗ decay

The reaction 12C + 12C at 95 MeV has been studied at the Legnaro Laboratories of INFN with the GARFIELD + RCo apparatus. Data have been analyzed in order to investigate the decay of the Hoyle state of 12C*. Two different data selections have been made. The first one corresponds to peripheral binary collisions where the quasi-projectile is excited to the Hoyle state and the target has been left in the ground state. The second selection allows for studying central events with the formation of a 24Mg* and the Hoyle state is obtained as a step of the decay chain. The characteristics of the Hoyle state decay are very similar in the two samples and point to a mainly sequential decay through the population of an intermediate 8Begs, with a small contribution (~1.1%) from simultaneous three α-particle processes.