  The beta-delayed alpha-decay of 16N has been used to restrict the E1 fraction
of the ground state gamma-transition in the astrophysically important
12C(alpha,gamma)16O reaction in several experiments including those performed
at TRIUMF and several other laboratories. A review of the published
measurements is given, and GEANT4 simulations and R-Matrix calculations are
presented to further clarify the observed alpha spectra. A clear
response-function, in the form of a low-energy tail from the scattering of
alpha-particles in the catcher foil is observed in these simulations for any
foil thickness. Contrary to claims in the literature, the simulations show that
the TRIUMF measurement and those performed at Yale and Mainz originate from the
same underlying spectrum. The simulations suggests that the discrepancies
between the Yale and TRIUMF final results can be attributed to incorrect
deconvolution methods applied in the former case. The simulations show in
general that the form (width) of the spectrum is very sensitive to the catcher
foil thickness. It is concluded that the TRIUMF measurement most likely
represents the currently closest approximation to the true beta-delayed
alpha-decay spectrum of 16N.
