Microscopic Study of the Triple-α Reaction

We present a microscopic dynamical study of the reactions involving three He-4 clusters. We show that the much discussed triple-alpha linear chain configuration of C-12 is formed with a certain lifetime and subsequently makes a transition to a triangular configuration of C-12 and then to a configuration near the ground state. Time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory coupled with a density constraint is used to study the properties of these configurations.