A Thorium-229 Nuclear Clock Search for Varying and Oscillating Fine-Structure Constant: A Rigorous Laboratory Proposal

Standalone rigorous proposal for Test 5. We propose a 1-year, pre-registered search for linear drift AND coherent oscillation of the fine-structure constant alpha using the Thorium-229 nuclear clock. Thorium has K ~ -2x10^4, about 4,000x larger than Yb+, and about 6,000x more sensitive to alpha variation than previous methods (TU Wien 2025). Target: drift to 1x10^-20 / year, oscillation amplitude to 1x10^-18 for 10^-6 to 10^-2 Hz. Includes: full theory, pre-registered hypotheses, sensitivity calculations, systematic error budget, two-transition veto, sidereal vs solar veto, blind analysis pipeline, decision rule, 24-month timeline, $100k-$160k collaboration budget. This is a collaboration proposal. It requires access to an existing Th-229 clock at TU Wien, PTB, or Boulder. Author is seeking a host lab. Author: Robert Aaron Tseglin, [email protected]: v1.0 standalone Keywords: thorium-229nuclear clockfine-structure constantvarying constantsultralight dark matterstring theorypre-registered