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Re: [Phys-l] Fwd: decay constant variation and solar flares?!




On Sep 3, 2010, at 12:26 PM, Moses Fayngold wrote:

The question of seasonal variations of decay rates may be very tricky. For one
thing, do experimental measurements ensure constant Lab conditions (e.g., fixed
temperature, EM field insulation etc.) in both - the studied sample and the
detectors - throughout the year?

There are many ways to check for such suspected artifact. One way to check for the stability NaI detector response would to expse it to send signals from a generator of light pulses (of constant amplitude and frequency). They probably did the, during the same experiment, placing the control peak above the soectrum ending. Or something similar.

Ludwik







If so, and yet the effect, small as it may be,
is confirmed, then we may be facing yet unknown or unaccounted for seasonal
effect other than temperature, solar wind intensity etc. In this case it might
be instructive to compare the results obtained simultaneously in the Northern
and Southern hemispheres. If, as claimed, the decay rate is slightly faster in
winter than in summer, then one could ask - in winter in what hemisphere? If in
the northern, would that mean that in the southern one the decay rate is faster
when we have summer in New York? In other words, in this case we should observe
not only temporal, but also spatial variation of measurement results obtained
simultaneously at different latitudes.
Is there any known effect of this kind?

Moses Fayngold,
NJIT



________________________________
Ludwik kowalski <kowalskil@mail.montclair.edu> wrote:

Subject: [Phys-l] Fwd: decay constant variation and solar flares?!

In a message received today someone wrote:

Hi Ludwik,

Have you heard this surprising news about nuclear decay?

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/august/sun-082310.html

Thank you for the link. Here is the essence of the claim:

"Checking data collected at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island and
the Federal Physical and Technical Institute in Germany, they came across
something even more surprising: long-term observation of the decay rate of
silicon-32 and radium-226 seemed to show a small seasonal variation. The decay
rate was ever so slightly faster in winter than in summer."

Experimental evidence that the rate of radioactive decay remains constant (in
natural earth environment) is very reliable. But it is not difficult to change
it. Put a radioactive isotope into the core of a nuclear reactor an it will
start disappearing faster that outside, due to the bombardment neutrons. This
idea is at the heart of a project whose aim is destroy highly radioactive waste.
For more details see:

http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/waste/
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Ludwik

http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/life/intro.html



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Ludwik

http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/life/intro.html