Monday 1 June 2009

How Are Radioactive Decay Rates Influenced by Neutrinos - On Earth and Other Dense Planets

In the paper that this report is based on, 1, they simply see an annual period in the $beta$ decay rates of radioactive isotope samples in the lab. Basically, the rate is a fraction of a percent higher in winter than in summer. They conclude that absent any simple instrumentation explanation:




we conclude that these results are consistent with the hypothesis that
nuclear decay rates may be influenced by some form of solar radiation.




Several things can be changing in a laboratory during a year. Obviously, temperature and humidity changes and these were tested in the experiment. But, also radon levels change as the amount of outside air exchanged with inside air is changed. The solar cosmic ray flux (high energy electrons, protons, and He nuclei generated in the chromosphere of the sun) changes as the Sun angle changes, and neutrinos (produced in the core) also as Sun angle changes. These could be affecting nuclei decay rates directly or the instrument used to measure these (subtle changes in threshold energies, false counts from ions produced in the instrument, potential shifts, etc.).

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