EVIDENCE FOR A SOLAR INFLUENCE ON NUCLEAR DECAY RATES

Analyses of data acquired during two experiments at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and one at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany have yielded strong evidence for an annual variation of some nuclear decay rates. Since it has not proved possible to explain this variation in terms of an experimental or environmental effect, and since the Sun-Earth distance varies with an annual period, it is reasonable to suspect that some kind radiation from the Sun may be playing a role.

In order to check this hypothesis, we have looked for other signatures of a solar influence, including periodicities that might be associated with solar rotation. Power-spectrum analysis yields strong evidence for a periodicity with frequency 11.25 year-1, corresponding to a synodic rotation period of 32.5 days. Interestingly, this is a slower rotation rate than the rotation rates of the outer layers of the Sun-the convection zone and the radiative zone.

This leads to the questions: What particles or fields, produced in the solar core, vary with the solar rotation rate, and why? And what is the mechanism by which these particles or fields influence nuclear decay rates?

Dr. Sturrock studied mathematics at Cambridge University. After research at the National Bureau of Standards, the University of Paris, the Cavendish Laboratory, and the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Sturrock came to Stanford University in 1955, but spent a year at CERN from 1957-1958. He was Professor of Applied Physics from 1961 until 1998, Director of the Institute for Plasma Research from 1964 to 1974, and Director of the Center for Space Science and Astrophysics from 1992 until 1998. He has served as Chairman of the Plasma Physics Division of the American Physical Society, and as Chairman of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society. His research interests have included electron optics, electron physics, particle accelerators, plasma physics, solar physics, astrophysics, statistics, scientific inference, and other topics that do not fit comfortably in the framework of conventional science. He has received awards from the American Astronomical Society, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Cambridge University, the Gravity Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Society for Scientific Exploration. Sturrock has recently published his memoirs as A Tale of Two Sciences.