New physics searches with the Th229 nuclear clock

Recently the first laser excitation of the isomer transition in Thorium 229 has been accomplished. This achievement paves the way for the construction of a nuclear clock, an optical clock that does not rely on the electrons in an atom to ‘tick’ but rather the nucleus. I will argue that such a clock has a 5 orders of magnitude larger sensitivity to changes in the fine structure constant and an 8 order of magnitude larger sensitivity to changes in the QCD scale than other atomic clocks. As such it allows us to explore uncharted territory of ultra light dark matter as well as theories involving fifth forces. I will show that this is already now the case before a full nuclear clock has been constructed.