Radioactive decay rates fluctuate: falsify/strengthen how?

[Ronja]

This just in. The challenge: think of as many honest, science-based ways as possible to

a) weaken the credibility of the claim and/or
b) strengthen the credibility of the claim

The strange case of solar flares and radioactive elements

When researchers found an unusual linkage between solar flares and the inner life of radioactive elements on Earth, it touched off a scientific detective investigation that could end up protecting the lives of space-walking astronauts and maybe rewriting some of the assumptions of physics.

BY DAN STOBER

It's a mystery that presented itself unexpectedly: The radioactive decay of some elements sitting quietly in laboratories on Earth seemed to be influenced by activities inside the sun, 93 million miles away.

Is this possible?

Researchers from Stanford and Purdue University believe it is. But their explanation of how it happens opens the door to yet another mystery.

There is even an outside chance that this unexpected effect is brought about by a previously unknown particle emitted by the sun. "That would be truly remarkable," said Peter Sturrock, Stanford professor emeritus of applied physics and an expert on the inner workings of the sun.

The story begins, in a sense, in classrooms around the world, where students are taught that the rate of decay of a specific radioactive material is a constant. This concept is relied upon, for example, when anthropologists use carbon-14 to date ancient artifacts and when doctors determine the proper dose of radioactivity to treat a cancer patient.

Random numbers

But that assumption was challenged in an unexpected way by a group of researchers from Purdue University who at the time were more interested in random numbers than nuclear decay. (Scientists use long strings of random numbers for a variety of calculations, but they are difficult to produce, since the process used to produce the numbers has an influence on the outcome.)

Ephraim Fischbach, a physics professor at Purdue, was looking into the rate of radioactive decay of several isotopes as a possible source of random numbers generated without any human input. (A lump of radioactive cesium-137, for example, may decay at a steady rate overall, but individual atoms within the lump will decay in an unpredictable, random pattern. Thus the timing of the random ticks of a Geiger counter placed near the cesium might be used to generate random numbers.)

As the researchers pored through published data on specific isotopes, they found disagreement in the measured decay rates – odd for supposed physical constants.

Checking data collected at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island and the Federal Physical and Technical Institute in Germany, they came across something even more surprising: long-term observation of the decay rate of silicon-32 and radium-226 seemed to show a small seasonal variation. The decay rate was ever so slightly faster in winter than in summer.

Was this fluctuation real, or was it merely a glitch in the equipment used to measure the decay, induced by the change of seasons, with the accompanying changes in temperature and humidity?

...

All of the evidence points toward a conclusion that the sun is "communicating" with radioactive isotopes on Earth, said Fischbach.

But there's one rather large question left unanswered. No one knows how neutrinos could interact with radioactive materials to change their rate of decay.

"It doesn't make sense according to conventional ideas," Fischbach said. Jenkins whimsically added, "What we're suggesting is that something that doesn't really interact with anything is changing something that can't be changed."

"It's an effect that no one yet understands," agreed Sturrock. "Theorists are starting to say, 'What's going on?' But that's what the evidence points to. It's a challenge for the physicists and a challenge for the solar people too."

If the mystery particle is not a neutrino, "It would have to be something we don't know about, an unknown particle that is also emitted by the sun and has this effect, and that would be even more remarkable," Sturrock said.

Chantal Jolagh, a science-writing intern at the Stanford News Service, contributed to this story.

Rest of this blog post here: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/augu ... 82310.html

The original peer-reviewed article (Astroparticle Physics Volume 31, Issue 6, July 2009, Pages 407-411) can be accessed in full here: http://arxiv.org/pdf/0808.3283

A few other takes on this issue here: http://arxiv.org/pdf/0808.3156 and here: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009AGUFMSH21C..07S

Discuss!

[JimC]

Well, Beta decay releases neutrinos, so perhaps a change in the flux of external neutrinos around a given unstable nucleus could effect the weak force, which is at the heart of Beta decay...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Man, Fischbach was one funny guy. Thanks for reminding me of him. (He did a "gay Hitler" that would kill you.)

[mistermack]

I would say the first thing you establish is, is the effect the same for samples in the southern hemisphere.
ie, does the winter/summer thing reverse, when you go south.
If samples in the southern hemisphere are slow, when northern ones are fast, then you're onto something. If they aren't, then you have a problem.
I don't know if it's feasible to conduct a test on the space station.

It can't be anything to do with time running slow or fast, as that would affect the clocks equally, so you wouldn't see the effect.

I could be something coming from one side of the sun, that could also be eliminated by the north/south comparison.

It's worth keeping an eye on.
.

[mistermack]

This was meant to be an edit. Sorry.

[Warren Dew]

Radioactive decay rates are known to depend on quantum entaglement. It seems to me the next step would be for the theorists to come up with a mechanism for solar flares to change the degree of quantum entanglement for the isotopes being observed.

[Ronja]

There's a new overview / analysis, with a 30-min video and some quite interesting comments, here: http://news.discovery.com/space/is-the- ... ticle.html

[Ronja]

Well, Beta decay releases neutrinos, so perhaps a change in the flux of external neutrinos around a given unstable nucleus could effect the weak force, which is at the heart of Beta decay...

My hubby, who is a physicist and work with radioactivity measurements, pointed out that in the reported findings, both Alpha and Beta fluctuate. Not that he, either, can even start guessing what that means or if it somehow strengthens or weakens your point.

I *luuurv* a good mystery!