Investigating 16O with the 15N(p,{α})12C reaction

The 16O nucleus was investigated through the 15N(p,{\alpha})12C reaction at excitation energies from Ex = 12 231 to 15 700 keV using proton beams from a 5 MeV Van de Graaff accelerator at beam energies of Ep = 331 to 3800 keV. Alpha decay from resonant states in 16O was strongly observed for ten known excited states in this region. The candidate 4-alpha cluster state at Ex = 15.1 MeV was investigated particularly intensely in order to understand its particle decay channels.