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Acta Physica Polonica B Proceedings Supplement

High Sensitivity Quantum Mechanics Tests in the Cosmic Silence

Kristian Piscicchia, Andreas Pichler, Aidin Amirkhani, Sergio Bartalucci, S. Bertolucci, M. Bazzi, M. Bragadireanu, M. Cargnelli, A. Clozza, Catalina Curceanu, R. Del Grande, Luca De Paolis, J.-P. Egger, Carlo Ettore Fiorini, C. Guaraldo, M. Iliescu, Matthias Laubenstein, Johann Marton, Marco Miliucci, E. Milotti, Dorel Pietreanu, A. Scordo, Hao Shi, Diana Laura Sirghi, Florin Catalin Sirghi, Luciano Sperandio, O. Vázquez Doce, Johann Zmeskal

Published Nov 18, 2020• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The VIP experiment aims to perform high-precision tests of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons in the extremely low cosmic background environment of the Underground Gran Sasso Laboratories of INFN (Italy). The experimental technique consists in introducing a DC current in a copper conductor, searching for Kα PEP-forbidden atomic transitions when the K shell is already occupied by two electrons. The results of a preliminary data analysis, corresponding to the first run of the VIP-2 data taking (2016–2017), are presented. The experimental setup in the final configuration is described together with preliminary spectra from the 2019 data-taking campaign.

DOI
10.5506/aphyspolbsupp.14.151

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Journal of Physics Conference Series•Feb 1, 2020•0 citations
The VIP experiment aims to perform high-precision tests of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons in the extremely low cosmic background environment of the Underground Gran Sasso Laboratories of INFN (Italy). The experimental technique consists in introducing a DC current in a copper conductor, searching for Kα PEP-forbidden atomic transitions when the K shell is already occupied by two electrons. The results of a preliminary data analysis, corresponding to the first run of the VIP-2 data taking (2016–2017), are presented. The experimental setup in the final configuration is described together with preliminary spectra from the 2019 data-taking campaign.
The VIP collaboration is performing high sensitivity tests of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons in the extremely low cosmic background environment of the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory INFN (Italy). In particular, the VIP-2 Open Systems experiment was conceived to put strong constraints on those Pauli Exclusion Principle violation models which respect the so-called Messiah-Greenberg superselection rule. The experimental technique consists of introducing a direct current in a copper conductor, and searching for the X-rays emission coming from a forbidden atomic transition from the L shell to the K shell of copper when the K shell is already occupied by two electrons. The analysis of the first three months of collected data (in 2018) is presented. The obtained result represents the best bound on the Pauli Exclusion Principle violation probability which fulfills the Messiah-Greenberg rule.
Abstract The VIP experiment performed an accurate investigation of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons. The apparatus was installed in the Gran Sasso Laboratories of the National Institute of Nuclear Physic in Italy, an underground environment with an extremely low cosmic background. The aim of the experiment was to test the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons in a copper target circulated by a Direct Current (DC) current, searching for X-rays emission due to an atomic transition forbidden by Pauli exclusion principle, from the L shell to the K shell of copper when the K shell is already occupied by two electrons. VIP set an upper limit on the Pauli exclusion principle violation probability 1/2β 2 <4.7 χ 10–29. The goal of the upgraded VIP-2 experiment, presently in data taking at Gran Sasso Laboratories, is to improve this limit by two orders of magnitude. The VIP-2 experimental apparatus, in which the Silicon Drift Detectors have the key role of X-ray detectors, and preliminary results are presented.
The VIP-2 experiment tests the Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) for electrons at the Gran Sasso underground National Laboratory (LNGS) of INFN in Italy, looking for a possible violation. The LNGS provide an extremely low background environment, ideal for performing high precision X-ray spectroscopy measurements on electrons atomic transitions. The core of the VIP-2 experimental apparatus is based on a copper target circulated by a Direct Current (DC) and surrounded by silicon drift detectors (SDDs), which offer excellent performance in X-ray spectroscopy in the energy range experimentally observed by VIP-2. The aim of VIP-2 is to look for eventual PEP-forbidden Kα\alphaα transitions (2p →\rightarrow→ 1s) in copper atoms, when the 1s level would be already occupied by two electrons, in contradiction with PEP. The energy of the Kα\alphaα forbidden transitions is about 300 eV less than the nominal energy of the Kα\alphaα PEP-allowed transition. This energy shift is due to the screening effect produced by the extra electron in fundamental level, and is detectable by means of a high precision X-ray spectroscopy measurement. About ten years ago, the VIP experiment set the best upper limit on the PEP violation probability $\beta^2/2<4.74.74.7~\times~10^{-29}$ for electrons. The goal of the VIP-2 experiment is to improve this limit by two orders of magnitude. This paper presents a new preliminary result, obtained by analysing two sets of data collected with a partial configuration of the VIP-2 apparatus.
Abstract The VIP-2 experiment performs a high sensitivity test of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons, and is operated in the ultra-low cosmic background environment of the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratories of INFN. The experimental technique consists in testing the symmetry state of an open, continuously supplied, system of fermions; thus representing the only spin-statistics test which strictly fulfills the Messiah-Greenberg superselection rule. In April 2019, VIP-2 started the ongoing data taking campaign in its final layout, with the goal to improve the previous VIP result of at least two orders of magnitude. Before April 2019, VIP-2 collected, in a partial configuration of the external shielding complex, two sets of data in 2018–2019 for a total duration of about 208 days. We present in this work the results of the analyses of the first two data sets collected by VIP-2, which already improve the VIP result by one order of magnitude. The results are also interpreted in the framework of a diffusion random walk model, which provides a significantly enhanced description of the electrons-atoms close encounters process, and hence a boost on the estimated limit on the Pauli Exclusion Principle violation probability.
The VIP Collaboration is performing high sensitivity tests of the Pauli exclusion principle for electrons in the extremely-low cosmic background environment of the Gran Sasso underground National Laboratory of INFN.In its open-systems configuration, the experiment checks the continuously renewed symmetry state of the conductive target, constantly supplied with electrons through a direct current.Consequently, VIP is operating the sole experiment challenging the spin-statistics connection in compliance with the Messiah-Greenberg superselection rule.The strongest bounds set by the VIP-2 experiment on the Pauli exclusion principle violation probability, by exploiting a copper target, will be reviewed.The future VIP-3 experiment will be presented, the aim of which is to map the Pauli exclusion principle violation probability as a function of the atomic number of the target under test.
The VIP-2 (VIolation of the Pauli Exclusion Principle) experiment conducted at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS) of INFN is searching for possible tiny violations of standard quantum mechanics in copper atoms with extremely high sensitivity. We investigate atomic transitions with precision X-ray spectroscopy in order to test the Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) and therefore the spin-statistics theorem. We present the experimental method for the search for "anomalous" (i.e. Pauli-forbidden) X-ray transitions in copper atoms, produced by "new" electrons, which could have a tiny probability to undergo a Pauli-forbidden transition to the 1s ground state already occupied by two electrons. We describe the VIP-2 experimental setup and its recent optimisations. Presently VIP-2 is taking data at LNGS. The goal of VIP-2 is to test PEP for electrons with unprecedented accuracy, down to a limit in the probability that PEP is violated at the level of 10 −31 (and using a more elaborate analysis even 10 −40 ). We present current experimental results.