Periodicities in Nuclear Decay Data: Systematic Effects or New Physics?

Recent comparisons of independent and unrelated nuclear decay experiments have shown unexplained oscillations that appear to be common in frequency and phase. The most logical explanation for this fluctuation would be some common systematic or environmental factor. In this paper we provide detailed spectral analysis comparisons of several environmental factors with nuclear decay data from an experiment performed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. We demonstrate that, although none of the environmental factors investigated can be causal, comparisons with ACRIM solar irradiance measurements provide good agreement with the nuclear decay data. This analysis provides the first direct evidence that the cause of the fluctuations has a possible solar origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]