Additional experimental evidence for a solar influence on nuclear decay rates

2012/07/24 by J. H. Jenkins, Jere H. Jenkins, Kevin R. Herminghuysen +11
Chemistry · Engineering · Environmental Science · Health Professions · Physics and Astronomy · #Chemistry #Detector #Engineering #Environmental science #Geiger counter #Isotope #Nuclear engineering #Nuclear physics #Optics #Physics #Radioactive Decay and Measurement Techniques #Radioactive contamination and transfer #Radioactivity and Radon Measurements #Radiochemistry #Radiological weapon #astro-ph.SR #nucl-ex

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2012.07.008

8 pages, 6 figures

arxiv created 2012/07/24 · openalex publication_date 2012/08/08 · arxiv updated 2015/06/05 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Additional experimental evidence is presented in support of the recent hypothesis that a possible solar influence could explain fluctuations observed in the measured decay rates of some isotopes. These data were obtained during routine weekly calibrations of an instrument used for radiological safety at The Ohio State University Research Reactor using Cl-36. The detector system used was based on a Geiger-Mueller gas detector, which is a robust detector system with very low susceptibility to environmental changes. A clear annual variation is evident in the data, with a maximum relative count rate observed in January/February, and a minimum relative count rate observed in July/August, for seven successive years from July 2005 to June 2011. This annual variation is not likely to have arisen from changes in the detector surroundings, as we show here.

Citations

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Cited by

• Solar influence on nuclear decay rates: constraints from the MESSENGER mission