LAUSR

We study the prospects of using the electric quadrupole transitions from the ground states of Cu, Ag, and Au to the metastable states $^{2}D_{5/2}$ as clock transitions in optical lattice clocks. We calculate lifetimes, transition rates, and systematic shifts and find that they are very suitable for this purpose. In particular, the elements are found to have a blackbody radiation shift that is one to two orders smaller than that of Sr. The Au clock is found to have strong sensitivities to a variation of the fine-structure constant, to effects of scalar dark matter, and to a violation of local Lorentz invariance (LLI). Cu and Ag are also suitable for tests of LLI. We identify two more metastable states ($^{4}F_{9/2}^{o}$), one in Cu and another in Au, which can serve as additional clock transitions. The $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-sensitivity coefficients of the two Au clock transitions are large and have opposite sign. This doubles the overall sensitivity to variation of $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ and opens the possibility of a $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-variation test with a single neutral atomic species. We also present more accurate or additional values of the sensitivity to local position invariance violation for several established or proposed clock transitions. These values are important for properly evaluating the effectiveness of clock-clock comparisons.