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Physical Review Letters

Search for Small Violations of the Symmetrization Postulate for Spin-0 Particles

Giovanni Carlo Modugno, M. Inguscio, Guglielmo Maria Tino

Published Nov 30, 1998• 44 citations
Publisher

Abstract

An accurate test of the symmetrization postulate of quantum mechanics has been performed on the spin-0 ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ nuclei, by looking for transitions in the ${\mathrm{CO}}_{2}$ spectra involving states which are antisymmetric in the exchange of the nuclei. Using high-sensitivity laser spectroscopy, a bound of $2.1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}9}$ has been set to a possible violation of such postulate, with an improvement of more than 2 orders of magnitude with respect to the previous limit.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.81.4790

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An accurate test of the symmetrization postulate of quantum mechanics has been performed on the spin-0 16O{}^{16}\mathrm{O}16O nuclei, by looking for transitions in the CO2{\mathrm{CO}}_{2}CO2​ spectra involving states which are antisymmetric in the exchange of the nuclei. Using high-sensitivity laser spectroscopy, a bound of 2.1\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10\ensuremath−92.1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}9}2.1\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10\ensuremath−9 has been set to a possible violation of such postulate, with an improvement of more than 2 orders of magnitude with respect to the previous limit.
We investigated the spectrum of the 16O2{}^{16}{\mathrm{O}}_{2}16O2​ molecule by high-sensitivity laser spectroscopy and searched for transitions involving states which are antisymmetric under the exchange of the nuclei. These states are forbidden by the symmetrization postulate of quantum mechanics. This is the first reported experiment to test the symmetrization postulate for integer-spin particles to high precision. Our data set an upper limit of $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}7}$ to a possible violation of this postulate.
We have used diode laser absorption spectroscopy of the ``A'' band of molecular oxygen near 762 nm to provide a sensitive experimental test of the symmetrization postulate of quantum mechanics. We place an upper limit of $(0.8\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.3)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}$ on the probability of finding two identical 16{}^{16}16O nuclei in an antisymmetric state. This is one of the first sensitive tests of the symmetrization postulate for spin-0 particles.
We propose an experiment to look for possible small violations of the symmetrization postulate of quantum mechanics, in systems composed of three identical particles. Such violations could be detected by investigating the population of particular rotovibrational states of symmetrical molecules containing three identical nuclei. We discuss the symmetry properties of such states, and the implications of the symmetrization postulate and the spin statistics connection. A high-sensitivity spectroscopic investigation of simple molecules such as SO3,{\mathrm{SO}}_{3},SO3​, BH3,{\mathrm{BH}}_{3},BH3​, and NH3{\mathrm{NH}}_{3}NH3​ could lead, to our knowledge, to the first test of the symmetrization postulate for spin-0 and spin-1/2 nuclei.
We set a new upper limit of $1.7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}11}$ to the probability that two spin-0 16O{}^{16}\mathrm{O}16O nuclei are in forbidden exchange-antisymmetric states, testing the validity of fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. A newly designed difference-frequency spectrometer is used to look for the existence of these states. The experimental test was performed by tuning the spectrometer across a molecular transition of 12C16O2{}^{12}\mathrm{C}{}^{16}\mathrm{O}{}_{2}12C16O2​ belonging to the rovibrational band at $4.25\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$, connecting the forbidden states (0000,J=25)({00}^{0}0,J\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}25)(0000,J=25) and (0001,J=26)({00}^{0}1,J\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}26)(0001,J=26).