Public Physic Colloquium in the Summer Terms 2013
Place:     Germany, 48149 Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Str. 10, IG I, HS 2
Time:     Thursday, 11.04.2013  16:00 h c.t.
Colloquium Coffee at 15:45 h  at the Lecture Hall

The Hoyle state and the fate of carbon-based life
Prof. Dr. Ulf-G. Meissner, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Carbon is produced in hot giant stars by the fusion of three alpha particles. The rate of this process is
enhanced by a resonance in carbon-12 close to the triple-alpha threshold. This resonance, the so-called
Hoyle state, has been an enigma to nuclear theory for more than half a century. I present the first ab initio
calculation of this elusive excited state in the spectrum of carbon-12 and discuss its structure. Simulated
worlds with different quark masses and fine structure constants are also considered and the viability of
carbon-oxygen based life is investigated. Further, the role of the Hoyle state in our anthropic view of the
Universe is elucidated.

Invited from: Prof. Dr. Weinheimer

By Order of the Professors of the Department of Physics

Prof. Dr. Nikos Doltsinis