Direct and Indirect Searches for Anomalous Beta Decay

We present a treatment of time-varying nuclear transition rates intended to guide future experimental searches, focusing primarily on the concept of ``self--induce decay.'' This investigation stems from a series of recent reports that suggest that the decay rates of several isotopes may have been influenced by solar activity (perhaps by solar neutrinos). A mechanism in which (anti)neutrinos can influence the decay process suggests that a sample of decaying nuclei emitting neutrinos could affect its own rate of decay. Past experiments have searched for this "self-induced decay" (SID) effect by measuring deviations from the expected decay rate for highly active samples of varying geometries. Here, we further develop a SID formalism which takes into account the activation process. In the course of the treatment, the observation is made that the SID behavior closely resembles the behavior of rate-related losses due to dead-time, and hence that standard dead-time corrections can result in the removal of possible SID-related behavior.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics & Astronomy

Year

2015

Author dc:creator

• Nistor, Jonathan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ephraim Fischbach
• Andrew S. Hirsch
• Ken P. Ritchie
• Matthew T. Jones

Repository record dc:identifier

https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1314

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:docs.lib.purdue.edu:open_access_dissertations-2530