Re: [Phys-l] Nuclear decays depend on solar distance?

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@hep.anl.gov>]

	Neither experiment has been published in a journal such as Phys 
Rev.  Seasonal effects, such as those giving rise to changes in heating or 
ventilating systems, have been known to affect insturmentation and 
backgrounds.
	I'd be inclined to wait a few days before trying to "explain" this 
effect.
				Regards,
					Jack

On Sat, 30 Aug 2008, Jeff Loats wrote:

> As my colleague said "ok, that qualifies for the weirdest somewhat credible
> result I've read in a while...".
>
> http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0808/0808.3283v1.pdf
>
> The 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-Bundesandstalt 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
> 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.

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