Theory of Coulomb excitation of the 229Th nucleus by protons

One of the current research focuses on 229Th is to search for efficient methods to excite the nucleus from the ground state to the low-lying isomeric state. While existing methods are either optical or electronic excitation, we propose herein to use Coulomb excitation by protons for producing the isomer. A theoretical framework is developed for the protonic Coulomb excitation process, and the isomeric excitation cross section is calculated to be over 10 mb with a typical proton energy of 10 MeV. Proton excitation is particularly advantageous for solidstate targets owing to its strong penetrability through materials, and its experimental implementation is relatively straightforward. An experimental scheme featuring 229Th-doped crystals is envisaged, and an assessment of the expected excitation efficiency is provided.