The three-body breakup 6 He→ 4 Heϩnϩn is studied experimentally, using a secondary 6 He ion beam of 240 MeV/nucleon incident on carbon and lead targets. Integrated cross sections for one-and two-neutron knockout and differential cross sections d/dE* and d/d for inelastic nuclear or electromagnetic excitations into the 6 He continuum are presented. The E1-strength distribution is deduced from electromagnetic cross sections and is found to exhaust (10Ϯ2)% of the energy-weighted Thomas-Reiche-Kuhn sum rule or (40Ϯ8)% of the cluster sum rule for excitation energies below 5 MeV. Both the energy-weighted and non-energy-weighted dipole cluster sum rules are almost exhausted integrating the strength up to 10 MeV, a fact from which the root-mean-square distance between the ␣ core and the two valence neutrons of r ␣Ϫ2n ϭ(3.36Ϯ0.39) fm is derived. The known I ϭ2 ϩ ͑1.80 MeV͒ resonance in 6 He is observed in nuclear inelastic scattering; model-dependent values of the quadrupole deformation parameter ␦ 2 ϭ(1.7Ϯ0.3) fm or B(E2,0 ϩ →2 ϩ )ϭ(3.2Ϯ0.6)e 2 fm 4 are derived. No clear signature could be obtained for predicted higherlying 2 ϩ resonances, but low-lying continuum strength of multipolarity other than dipole, likely of monopole and quadrupole multipolarity, is indicated by the data. Two-body correlations in the decaying 4 Heϩnϩn system are investigated. The astrophysical relevance of the data with regard to the two-neutron capture process 4 He(2n,␥) 6 He is briefly discussed.

In the centres of stars where the temperature is high enough, three alpha-particles (helium nuclei) are able to combine to form 12C because of a resonant reaction leading to a nuclear excited state. (Stars with masses greater than approximately 0.5 times that of the Sun will at some point in their lives have a central temperature high enough for this reaction to proceed.) Although the reaction rate is of critical significance for determining elemental abundances in the Universe, and for determining the size of the iron core of a star just before it goes supernova, it has hitherto been insufficiently determined. Here we report a measurement of the inverse process, where a 12C nucleus decays to three alpha-particles. We find a dominant resonance at an energy of approximately 11 MeV, but do not confirm the presence of a resonance at 9.1 MeV (ref. 3). We show that interference between two resonances has important effects on our measured spectrum. Using these data, we calculate the triple-alpha rate for temperatures from 10(7) K to 10(10) K and find significant deviations from the standard rates. Our rate below approximately 5 x 10(7) K is higher than the previous standard, implying that the critical amounts of carbon that catalysed hydrogen burning in the first stars are produced twice as fast as previously believed. At temperatures above 10(9) K, our rate is much less, which modifies predicted nucleosynthesis in supernovae.

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