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Acta Physica Polonica A

High Sensitivity Pauli Exclusion Principle Tests by the VIP Experiment: Status and Perspectives

Kristian Piscicchia, Sergio Bartalucci, S. Bertolucci, M. Bazzi, G. Borghi, M. Bragadireanu, C. Capoccia, M. Cargnelli, A. Clozza, R. Del Grande, Luca De Paolis, Carlo Ettore Fiorini, C. Guaraldo, M. Iliescu, Matthias Laubenstein, Johann Marton, Marco Miliucci, E. Milotti, Fabrizio Napolitano, Alessio Porcelli, A. Scordo, Hexi Shi, D. L. Sirghi, Florin Catalin Sirghi, Francesco Sgaramella, N. Zorzi, Johann Zmeskal, Catalina Curceanu

Published Sep 1, 2022• 2 citations

Abstract

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.

DOI: 10.12693/aphyspola.142.361

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One of the fundamental rules of nature and a pillar in the foundation of quantum theory and thus of modern physics is represented by the Pauli Exclusion Principle. We know that this principle is extremely well fulfilled due to many observations. Numerous experiments were performed to search for tiny violation of this rule in various systems. The experiment VIP at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory is searching for possible small violations of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons leading to forbidden X-ray transitions in copper atoms. VIP is aiming at a test of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons with high accuracy, down to the level of 10 −29 – 10 −30 , thus improving the previous limit by 3–4 orders of magnitude. The experimental method, results obtained so far and new developments within VIP2 (follow-up experiment at Gran Sasso, in preparation) to further increase the precision by 2 orders of magnitude will be presented.

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One of the fundamental rules of nature and a pillar in the foundation of quantum theory and thus of modern physics is represented by the Pauli Exclusion Principle. We know that this principle is extremely well fulfilled due to many observations. Numerous experiments were performed to search for tiny violation of this rule in various systems. The experiment VIP at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory is searching for possible small violations of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons leading to forbidden X-ray transitions in copper atoms. VIP is aiming at a test of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons with high accuracy, down to the level of 10

^{-29}

- 10

^{-30}

, thus improving the previous limit by 3-4 orders of magnitude. The experimental method, results obtained so far and new developments within VIP2 (follow-up experiment at Gran Sasso, in preparation) to further increase the precision by 2 orders of magnitude will be presented.