Quantum Nucleonics and Novel Nuclear Science

Experimental capabilities exist to set and control coherent nuclear state dynamics with coherent radiation sources (1) and solid-state excitations, such as magnons (2). There is recent interest in the first excited nuclear state of ^229mTh, which is only 8 eV above the nuclear ground state, permitting inexpensive coherent nuclear state manipulation with a UV laser light source in the development of a nuclear clock (3). Here we propose new experiments to determine if the dynamics of novel nuclear reactions may be influenced by this coherent control of nuclear dynamics. [1] K.P. Heeg, et al., Nature 590, 401(2021); [2] L. Bocklage et al., Sci. Adv. 7, 2021; [3] E. Gibney, Nature 633, 262-263 (2024).