ON THE FOURIER SPECTRUM ANALYSIS OF THE SOLAR NEUTRINO CAPTURE RATE

Periodic variations in Davis' experimental data concerning the solar neutrino capture rate are derived on the basis of a Fourier spectrum analysis. Variations in the 37Ar production rate are obtained for a series of randomly spaced observations in the period 1970-1985 (runs 18-89). The harmonic analysis of runs 18-89 has determined solar neutrino capture rate variations with periods of 8.33, 5.00, 2.13, 1.61, 0.83, 0.61, 0.54, and 0.51 yr, thereby confirming earlier calculations performed for the set of runs 18-69 (1983), 18-74 (1985a), and 18-80 (1985b). The results also confirm those of Sakurai (1979) who showed that there is strong evidence that the observed solar neutrino flux has a tendency to vary with quasi-biennial periodicity. We show that the results of the Fourier spectrum analysis do not depend upon certain high or low values in Davis' experimental data. © 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers.