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The recent demonstration of laser excitation of the ≈8eV isomeric state of Th229 is a significant step towards a nuclear clock. The low excitation energy likely results from a cancellation between electromagnetic and strong contributions, which new physics can disrupt. In this Letter, we quantify the enhancement of a nuclear clock's sensitivity to new physics using a geometric model and a novel d-wave halo model of the nucleus that reproduces measured differences between Th229 states. We find likely enhancements of order 104, while a worst case with enhancement ≪1 is unlikely.
Caputo et al. (Thu,) studied this question.