Triple charged-particle decays of resonances illustrated by 12C-states

The hyperspherical adiabatic expansion is combined with complex scaling and used to calculate the energy distributions of the particles arising from three-body decaying low-lying $^{12}$C resonances. The large distance continuum properties of the wavefunctions are crucial and must be accurately calculated. The substantial changes from small to large distances determine the decay mechanisms. We illustrate by computing the energy distributions from decays of the $1^{-}$, $2^-$ and $4^{-}$-resonances in $^{12}$C. These states are dominated by sequential ($1^-$), through the $^{8}$Be ground state, and direct ($2^-$, $4^-$) decays.