Re: Nuclear decay

[Ludwik Kowalski <KowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>]

At one time (about 35 years ago) I was interested in this topic.
At that time the only known way to influence the rate of decay
was to change the chemical composition. To the best of my
recollection no temperature effect was ever observed by an
experimentalist. Chemical composition may change the
average local electric field and K-electrons "feel it", near a
nucleus of a very low Z.
Ludwik Kowalski.

"Shapiro, Mark" wrote:

> Bill,
>
>         I believe you are confusing a "temperature effect" with a pressure
> effect.  In order to change a nuclear decay rate, one has to change the
> electron density in the immediate vicinity of the nucleus.  There have been
> a few experiments that have done this by subjecting radioactive samples to
> extremely high-pressures which changes the distribution of inner-shell
> electrons enough to alter the decay rates by a few percent.