07 June 2010

Environmental Impacts On Beta Decay Overstated

Most of the studies tending to show that beta decay of atoms is influenced by factors like distance from the sun appears to have been refuted in efforts to replicate the results.

The studies hinting at environmental links to beta decay had suggested that there might be interactions between neutrino field density or gravitational field strength and beta decay, perhaps through non-linear impacts of relativistic impacts on the rate at which time passes. This would have meant fundamental new physics with practical implications.

Instead, the experiments appear to show that beta decay rates more fundamental, depending only on the frequency of electrons in the vicinity of the nucleus and the underlying particles that are present.

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