Elsevier

Astroparticle Physics

Volume 32, Issue 1, August 2009, Pages 42-46
Astroparticle Physics

Evidence of correlations between nuclear decay rates and Earth–Sun distance

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2009.05.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Unexplained periodic fluctuations in the decay rates of 32Si and 226Ra have been reported by groups at Brookhaven National Laboratory (32Si), and at the Physikalisch–Technische–Bundesanstalt in Germany (226Ra). We show from an analysis of the raw data in these experiments that the observed fluctuations are strongly correlated in time, not only with each other, but also with the time of year. We discuss both the possibility that these correlations arise from seasonal influences on the detection system, as well as the suggestion of an annual modulation of the decay rates themselves which vary with Earth–Sun distance.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are deeply indebted to D. Alburger and G. Harbottle for supplying us with the raw BNL data, and to H. Schrader for making the raw PTB data available to us. We also wish to thank A.M. Hall for his contributions during the early stages of this project. The work of E.F. was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract No. DE-AC02-76ER071428.

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