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http://arxiv.org/abs/0808.3283
They also cite this paper in saying:
http://arxiv.org/abs/0808.3156
This is weird as hell. As far as I knew, nuclear decay rates were not affected by anything, except beta decay under electromagnetic fields. This could possibly have huge consequences in other sciences. Personally, I immediately went to post this in Earth. Paleoclimatologists collect data over hundreds to millions of years based on isotope ratios and nuclear decay rates. Anthropologists, archeologists, geologists— they all do as well, but who knows!Unexplained periodic fluctuations in the decay rates of Si-32 and Ra-226 have been reported by groups at Brookhaven National Laboratory (Si-32), and at the Physikalisch-Technische-Bundesandstalt in Germany (Ra-226). 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 distance between the Earth and the Sun. Some implications of these results are also discussed, including the suggestion that discrepancies in published half-life determinations for these and other nuclides may be attributable in part to differences in solar activity during the course of the various experiments, or to seasonal variations in fundamental constants.
By that they mean the fine structure constant. They cite this paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.4317In summary, we have presented evidence for a correlation between changes in nuclear decay rates and the Earth-Sun distance. While the mechanism responsible for this phenomenon is unknown, theories involving variations in fundamental constants could give rise to such effects.
They also cite this paper in saying:
http://arxiv.org/abs/0808.3156
Interesting, all these papers came out at about the same time in 2008. Nice stuff. I'm not a frequent poster in this forum, but I thought it would be placed well here and get some good discussion on these three papers. If it should be moved by a moderator, then go ahead and move it.These results are also consistent with the correlation between nuclear decay rates and solar activity suggested by Jenkins and Fischbach [18] if the latter effect is interpreted as possibly arising from a change in the solar neutrino flux. These conclusions can be tested in a number of ways. In addition to repeating long-term decay measurements on Earth, measurements on radioactive samples carried aboard spacecraft to other planets would be very useful since the sample-Sun distance would then vary over a much wider range. The neutrino flux hypothesis might also be tested using samples placed in the neutrino flux produced by nuclear reactors.