https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60325-8
Regular Article
Quartet condensation in Fermi-systems. The Hoyle state in the 12C nucleus and life on earth
1 Institut de Physique Nucléaire, CNRS, UMR8608, 91406 Orsay, France
2 Université Paris-Sud, 91505 Orsay, France
3 Laboratoire de Physique et de Modélisation des Milieux Condensés, CNRS et Université Joseph Fourier, UMR5493, 25 Av. des Martyrs, BP 166, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
a e-mail: schuck@ipno.in2p3.fr
Received: 14 October 2016
Revised: 23 November 2016
Published online: 25 May 2017
The possibility that a four component Fermi gas with attractive interaction can form a quartet condensate at low density is pointed out. It is discussed that for quartets only the Bose-Einstein Condensatio (BEC) phase exists and that the analogue to the weak coupling long coherence BCS phase of pairing is absent. Precurser phenomena in finite nuclei are presented. For instance, the present understanding of the structure of the Hoyle state in 12C being the gateway for Carbon production in the universe is reviewed. It is pointed out that a crucial test of any theory is the good reproduction of the experimental results for the inelastic form factor from ground to the Hoyle state. The performances of the so-called THSR wavwe function are outlined confirming the α particle condensation hypothesis proposed 15 years back in [1].
© The Author(s) 2017
Open Access This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
