Opportunities for fundamental physics research with radioactive molecules

G Arrowsmith-Kron… - Reports on progress …, 2024‏ - iopscience.iop.org
Molecules containing short-lived, radioactive nuclei are uniquely positioned to enable a
wide range of scientific discoveries in the areas of fundamental symmetries, astrophysics …

Frequency ratio of the 229mTh nuclear isomeric transition and the 87Sr atomic clock

C Zhang, T Ooi, JS Higgins, JF Doyle, L von der Wense… - Nature, 2024‏ - nature.com
Optical atomic clocks, use electronic energy levels to precisely keep track of time. A clock
based on nuclear energy levels promises a next-generation platform for precision metrology …

Controlling 229Th isomeric state population in a VUV transparent crystal

T Hiraki, K Okai, M Bartokos, K Beeks… - Nature …, 2024‏ - nature.com
Abstract The radioisotope thorium-229 (229Th) is renowned for its extraordinarily low-
energy, long-lived nuclear first-excited state. This isomeric state can be excited by vacuum …

Nuclear quantum memory for hard x-ray photon wave packets

S Velten, L Bocklage, X Zhang, K Schlage… - Science …, 2024‏ - science.org
Optical quantum memories are key elements in modern quantum technologies to reliably
store and retrieve quantum information. At present, they are conceptually limited to the …

Nelson-Barr ultralight dark matter

M Dine, G Perez, W Ratzinger, I Savoray - Physical Review D, 2025‏ - APS
We show that, in the Nelson-Barr solution to the strong CP-problem, a naturally light scalar
can arise. It gives rise to a completely new phenomenology beyond that of the celebrated …

229ThF4 thin films for solid-state nuclear clocks

C Zhang, L von der Wense, JF Doyle, JS Higgins, T Ooi… - Nature, 2024‏ - nature.com
After nearly 50 years of searching, the vacuum ultraviolet 229 Th nuclear isomeric transition
has recently been directly laser excited 1, 2 and measured with high spectroscopic precision …

Efficient production of via nuclear excitation by electron capture

J Zhao, A Pálffy, CH Keitel, Y Wu - Physical Review C, 2024‏ - APS
The nuclear isomeric state Th 229 m with an exceptionally low excitation energy makes the
Th 229 isotope a crucial candidate for nuclear clocks and many other applications. Efficient …

Detection of bosenovae with quantum sensors on Earth and in space

J Arakawa, J Eby, MS Safronova, V Takhistov… - Physical Review D, 2024‏ - APS
In a broad class of theories, the accumulation of ultralight dark matter (ULDM) with particles
of mass 10-22 eV< m ϕ< 1 eV leads to the formation of long-lived bound states known as …

Highly nonlinear light-nucleus interaction

H Zhang, T Li, X Wang - Physical Review Letters, 2024‏ - APS
The interaction between light and atomic nuclei is typically weak and confined within the
linear and perturbative regime, which limits the achievable nuclear excitation probability and …

as a candidate for a high-accuracy optical clock for tests of fundamental physics

SG Porsev, C Cheung, MS Safronova, H Bekker… - Physical Review A, 2024‏ - APS
We propose In-like Pr 10+ as a candidate for the development of a high-accuracy optical
clock with high sensitivity to a time variation of the fine-structure constant, α ̇/α, as well as …