VIP 2: Experimental tests of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons
Abstract
The Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) was famously discovered in 1925 by the austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli. Since then, it underwent several experimental tests. Starting in 2006, the VIP (Violation of the Pauli Principle) experiment looked for 2p to 1s X-ray transitions in copper, where 2 electrons are present in the 1s state before the transition happens. These transitions violate the PEP, and the lack of detection of the corresponding X-ray photons lead to a preliminary upper limit for the violation of the PEP of 4.7 * 10^(-29). The follow-up experiment VIP 2 is currently in the testing phase and will be transported to its final destination, the underground laboratory of Gran Sasso in Italy, in autumn 2015. Several improvements compared to its predecessor like the use of new X-ray detectors and active shielding from background gives rise to a goal for the improvement of the upper limit of the probability for the violation of the Pauli Exclusion Principle of 2 orders of magnitude.
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Cite
@article{arxiv.1602.00867,
title = {VIP 2: Experimental tests of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons},
author = {A. Pichler and S. Bartalucci and M. Bazzi and S. Bertolucci and C. Berucci and M. Bragadireanu and M. Cargnelli and A. Clozza and C. Curceanu and L. De Paolis and S. Di Matteo and A. D'Uffizi and J. -P. Egger and C. Guaraldo and M. Iliescu and T. Ishiwatari and M. Laubenstein and J. Marton and E. Milotti and D. Pietreanu and K. Piscicchia and T. Ponta and E. Sbardella and A. Scordo and H. Shi and D. Sirghi and F. Sirghi and L. Sperandio and O. Vazquez-Doce and E. Widmann and J. Zmeskal},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1602.00867},
year = {2016}
}