The forces of symmetry and the physical meaning of the Pauli exclusion principle

Inna G Kaplan

Felix Tennie, Vlatko Vedral, Christian Schilling

Pauli's exclusion principle has a strong impact on the properties of most fermionic quantum systems. Remarkably, the fermionic exchange symmetry implies further constraints on the one-particle picture. By exploiting those generalized Pauli constraints, we derive a measure which quantifies the influence of the exchange symmetry beyond Pauli's exclusion principle. It is based on a geometric hierarchy induced by the exclusion principle constraints. We provide a proof of principle by applying our measure to a simple model. In that way, we conclusively confirm the physical relevance of the generalized Pauli constraints and show that the fermionic exchange symmetry can have an influence on the one-particle picture beyond Pauli's exclusion principle. Our findings provide a perspective on fermionic multipartite correlation since our measure allows one to distinguish between static and dynamic correlations.

Ilya G. Kaplan

V. P. Vasiliev, Russell Moon

Sergio Bartalucci, S. Bertolucci, M. Bragadireanu +18 more

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. A new limit on the probability that PEP is violated by electrons, was estabilished by the VIP (VIolation of the Pauli exclusion principle) Collaboration. The obtained value 12β2 < 4.5 × 10−28 is an improvement of about two orders of magnitude of the previous existing limit.

Sergio Bartalucci, S. Bertolucci, M. Bragadireanu +19 more

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 .