Annual variations of 1000 - 3000 ppm (peak-to-valley) have been observed
in the decay rates of 8 radionuclides over a 20 year span by six organizations
on three continents, including beta decay (weak interaction) and alpha decay
(strong interaction). In searching for a common cause, we hypothesized that
small variations in Planck’s constant might account for the observed
synchronized variations in strong and weak decays. If so, then h would be a
maximum around January-February of each year and a minimum around July-August
of each year based on the 20 years of radioactive decay data. To test this
hypothesis, a purely electromagnetic experiment was set up to search for the
same annual variations. From Jun 14, 2011 to Jan 29, 2014 (941 days), annual
variations in tunneling voltage through 5 parallel Esaki tunnel diodes were
recorded. It found annual variations of 826 ppm peak-to-valley peaking around
Jan 1. These variations lend support to the hypothesis that there is a gradient
in h of about 21 ppm across the Earth’s orbit.
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