Published in:
Astroparticle Physics 34,3 (2010) 173-178;
Link to original published article:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2010.06.011
Abstract
We provide the results from a spectral analysis of nuclear decay data displaying annually varying periodic fluctuations. The analyzed data were obtained from three distinct data sets: Si-32 and (CI)-C-36 decays reported by an experiment performed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Mn-56 decay reported by the Children's Nutrition Research Center (CNRC), but also performed at BNL, and Ra-226 decay reported by an experiment performed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany. All three data sets exhibit the same primary frequency mode consisting of an annual period. Additional spectral comparisons of the data to local ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, Earth-Sun distance, and their reciprocals were performed. No common phases were found between the factors investigated and those exhibited by the nuclear decay data. This suggests that either a combination of factors was responsible, or that, if it was a single factor, its effects on the decay rate experiments are not a direct synchronous modulation. We conclude that the annual periodicity in these data sets is a real effect, but that further study involving additional carefully controlled experiments will be needed to establish its origin. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Date of this Version
October 2010