Eur. Phys. J. A (2008) 38: 251-255
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2008-10680-8

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Benford’s law and half-lives of unstable nuclei

¹ Department of Physics, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, PRC
² Center of Theoretical Nuclear Physics, National Laboratory of Heavy-Ion Accelerator, 730000, Lanzhou, PRC
³ Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics China, 100190, Beijing, PRC

^* e-mail: dongdongnick@gmail.com

Received: 28 September 2008
Revised: 24 October 2008
Accepted: 28 October 2008
Published online: 18 November 2008

Abstract

We find that the experimental data of the -decay half-lives for 627 nuclei are in good agreement with Benford’s law, which states that the frequency of the appearance of each figure, 1-9, as the first significant digit, follows a logarithmic distribution favoring the smallest value. In order to generalize the applicability of Benford’s law, we systematically investigate the data of the total half-lives for 3177 nuclides in their ground and isomeric states, where the half-lives of many nuclei are determined by -decay and spontaneous fission. We find that they are also in excellent agreement with Benford’s law, although they are determined by different interactions such as strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions. The possible physics behind them is discussed. Moreover, Benford’s law can be used to test theoretical models or methods.