Spectroscopic Test of the Symmetrization Postulate and the Pauli Exclusion Principle

Giovanni Modugno

Frederick Reines, Henry W. Sobel

YONGJIN ZHANG AND TENG - CHI CHANG

Oscar Wallace Greenberg

One of the most fundamental tenets of quantum mechanics is the symmetrization postulate, which says that all collections of identical particles must be either fermions or bosons. This postulate is the basis of the Pauli exclusion principle and gives rise to the possibility of Bose-Einstein condensation.

K. Deilamian, John D. Gillaspy, Daniel E. Kelleher

We have searched for the existence of the permutation symmetric $1s2s^{1}S$ state of helium in an atomic beam. Such a state directly violates the symmetrization postulate (SP) of quantum mechanics and implies a breakdown of the Pauli exclusion principle. Our data constrain recent SP-violating models at the 5 ppm level. This is the first experiment to look systematically for an SP-violating state with no multiple occupancy of a quantum state.

Catalina Curceanu Petrascu, Sergio Bartalucci, Mario Alexandru Bragadireanu +26 more