Establishing the geometry of α clusters in C12 through patterns of polarized γ rays

Linearly polarized monocromatic beams of γ rays, that will be available at the ELI-NP facility, will open up the way to nuclear fluorescence experiments aimed at measuring the depolarization ratio of the outcoming photons. This is the ideal tool to clearly discriminate among the various proposed geometric configurations for α-cluster nuclei, such as 12C in a model-independent way. For this nucleus, all possible outcomes have been enumerated in this Rapid Communication, and the predicted theoretical patterns of intensities will serve as a guide for the conclusive experimental identification of its nuclear molecular structure.