Comment on "Measurements of Newton's gravitational constant and the length of day"

Abstract

There have been recent claims (Anderson et al., EPL, 110, 10002) of a 5.9 year periodicity in measurements of Newton's gravitational constant, $G$, which show a very strong correlation with observed periodic variations in the length of the day. I have used Bayesian model comparison to test this claim compared to other hypotheses that could explain the variation in the $G$ measurements. I have used the data from the initial claim, and from an updated set of compiled $G$ measurements that more accurately reflect the experimental dates, and find that a model containing an additional unknown Gaussian noise component is hugely favoured, by factors of $\gtrsim e^{30}$, over two models allowing for a sinusoidal component.