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Fluctuations in measured radioactive decay rates inside a modified Faraday cage: Correlations with space weather

2020; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 10; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/s41598-020-64497-0

2045-2322

Víctor Milián-Sánchez, Felix Scholkmann, Pedro Fernández de Córdoba, Antonio Mocholí Salcedo, Ferrán Mocholí, Miguel Martínez, Juan Carlos Castro-Palacio, V. A. Kolombet, V. A. Panchelyuga, G. Verdú,

Radioactivity and Radon Measurements

Abstract For several years, reports have been published about fluctuations in measured radioactive decay time-series and in some instances linked to astrophysical as well as classical environmental influences. Anomalous behaviors of radioactive decay measurement and measurement of capacitance inside and outside a modified Faraday cage were documented by our group in previous work. In the present report, we present an in-depth analysis of our measurement with regard to possible correlations with space weather, i.e. the geomagnetic activity (GMA) and cosmic-ray activity (CRA). Our analysis revealed that the decay and capacitance time-series are statistically significantly correlated with GMA and CRA when specific conditions are met. The conditions are explained in detail and an outlook is given on how to further investigate this important finding. Our discovery is relevant for all researchers investigating radioactive decay measurements since they point out that the space weather condition during the measurement is relevant for partially explaining the observed variability.