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International Journal of Quantum Information

THE VIP (VIOLATION OF THE PAULI EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE) EXPERIMENT

Sergio Bartalucci, S. Bertolucci, M. Bragadireanu, M. Cargnelli, M. Catitti, Catalina Curceanu, S. Di Matteo, J.-P. Egger, C. Guaraldo, M. Iliescu, Tomoichi Ishiwatari, Matthias Laubenstein, Johann Marton, E. Milotti, Dorel Pietreanu, Titus Ponta, D. L. Sirghi, Florin Catalin Sirghi, Luciano Sperandio, E. Widmann, Johann Zmeskal

Published Feb 1, 2007• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) represents one of the fundamental principles of the modern physics and our comprehension of the surrounding matter is based on it. Even if today there are no compelling reasons to doubt its validity, it still spurs a lively debate on its limits, as testified by the abundant contributions found in the literature and in topical conferences. We present a method of searching for possible small violations of PEP for electrons, through the search for "anomalous" X-ray transitions in copper atoms, produced by "fresh" electrons which can decay in a Pauli-forbidden transition to the 1s level, already occupied by two electrons. The VIP Experiment has the scientific goal to improve by four orders of magnitude the present limit on the probability of PEP violation for electrons, bringing it into the 10-30–10-31 region. Preliminary results, together with future plans, are presented.

DOI
10.1142/s0219749907002785

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The Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) represents one of the fundamental principles of the modern physics and our comprehension of the surrounding matter is based on it. Even if today there are no compelling reasons to doubt its validity, it still spurs a lively debate on its limits, as testified by the abundant contributions found in the literature and in topical conferences. We present a method of searching for possible small violations of PEP for electrons, through the search for "anomalous" X-ray transitions in copper atoms, produced by "fresh" electrons which can decay in a Pauli-forbidden transition to the 1s level, already occupied by two electrons. The VIP Experiment has the scientific goal to improve by four orders of magnitude the present limit on the probability of PEP violation for electrons, bringing it into the 10-30–10-31 region. Preliminary results, together with future plans, are presented.
The Pauli exclusion principle (PEP) represents one of the basic principles of modern physics and, even if there are no compelling reasons to doubt its validity, it still spurs a lively debate, because an intuitive, elementary explanation is still missing, and because of its unique stand among the basic symmetries of physics. A new limit on the probability that PEP is violated by electrons was estabilished by the VIP (Violation of the Pauli exclusion principle) Collaboration, using the method of searching for PEP forbidden atomic transitions in copper. The preliminary value, 1/2β 2 < 4.5 × 10 −28 , represents an improvement of about two orders of magnitude of the previous limit. The goal of VIP is to push this limit at the level of 10 −30 .
The Pauli exclusion principle (PEP) represents one of the basic principles of the modern physics. Even if there are no compelling reasons to doubt its validity, it still spurs a lively debate, because an intuitive, elementary explanation is still missing, and because of its unique stand among the basic symmetries of physics. A new limit on the probability that PEP is violated by electrons was estabilished by the VIP (VIolation of the Pauli exclusion principle) Collaboration, using the method of searching for PEP forbidden atomic transitions in copper. The preliminary value, ½ β 2 <6 × 10 -29 , represents an improvement of more than two orders of magnitude of the previous limit. The goal of VIP is to push this limit at the level of 10 -30 .
Full text: The Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) represents one of the fundamental principles of modern physics and much of our comprehension of the matter is based on it. There are no compelling reasons to doubt its validity, but a lively debate on its limits is going on, due to the lack of an explanation based on fundamental principles. One possible experiment is to measure the violation of PEP with electrons. The experimental method consists of introducing new electrons into a copper strip and to look for x-rays resulting from the 2p {yields} 1s anomalous x-rays transitions emitted if one of the new electrons would be captured by a copper atom and cascades down to the 1s state already filled with two electrons of opposite spin. The goal of the VIP experiment is to lower the present limit on the probability that PEP is violated by electrons, obtained by Ramberg and Snow (limit {<=} 1.7 x 10{sup -26}) by about 4 orders of magnitude. To minimize the background the measurement will be performed in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. Preliminary measurements were already performed. Presently the experiment is collecting data in Gran Sasso. The limit of PEP violation was already improved by two orders of magnitude. The results will be presented and the physics case discussed. (author)
The VIP (Violation of the Pauli Exclusion Principle) experiment is investigating one of the basic principles of modern physics, searching for anomalous X-rays emitted by copper atoms in a conductor: any detection of these anomalous X-rays would mark a Pauli forbidden transition. VIP is currently taking data at the Gran Sasso underground laboratories, and its scientific goal is to improve by three-four orders of magnitude the previous limit on the probability of Pauli violating transitions, bringing it into the 10-29÷-30 region. The new experimental results, together with future plans, are presented.
The Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) is one of the basic principles of modern physics and, even if there are no compelling reasons to doubt its validity, it is still debated today because an intuitive, elementary explanation is still missing, and because of its unique stand among the basic symmetries of physics. We present an experimental test of the validity of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons based on a straightforward idea put forward a few years ago by Ramberg and Snow (E. Ramberg and G. A. Snow 1990 Phys. Lett. B 238 438). We performed a very accurate search of X‐rays from the Pauli‐forbidden atomic transitions of electrons in the already filled 1S shells of copper atoms. Although the experiment has a very simple structure, it poses deep conceptual and interpretational problems. Here we describe the experimental method and recent experimental results interpreted as an upper limit for the probability to violate the Pauli Exclusion Principle. We also present future plans to upgrade the experimental apparatus.
The Pauli exclusion principle (PEP) is one of the basic principles of modern physics. Being at the very basis of our understanding of matter, as many other fundamental principles it spurs, presently, a lively debate on its possible limits, deeply rooted in the very foundations of Quantum Field Theory. Therefore, it is extremely important to test the limits of its validity. Quon theory provides a suitable mathematical framework of possible violation of PEP, where the violation parameter q translates into a probability of violating PEP. Experimentally, setting a bound on PEP violation means confining the violation parameter to a value very close to either 1 (for bosons) or -1 (for fermions). The VIP (VIolation of the Pauli exclusion principle) experiment established a limit on the probability that PEP is violated by electrons, using the method of searching for PEP forbidden atomic transitions in copper. We describe the experimental method, the obtained results, both in terms of the q-parameter from quon theory and as probability of PEP violation, we briefly discuss them and present future plans to go beyond the actual limit by upgrading the experimental technique using vetoed new spectroscopical fast Silicon Drift Detectors. We also shortly mention the possibility of using a similar experimental technique to search for eventual X-rays, generated in the spontaneous collapse models.