Speaker
Andreas Pichler
Description
A. Pichler for the VIP2 collaboration
The Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) is the foundation for our understanding of many fields of physics where systems of fermions are concerned. Since no simple explanation for the principle exists, it remains to be a postulate open to experimental tests, which are difficult as there is no well-established theory to predict a violation in a quantitative way. However, there have been high precision experiments searching for a possible PEP violation in the framework of Quantum Mechanics. In a pioneering experiment, Ramberg and Snow supplied electric current to a Cu target, and searched for PEP violating atomic transitions of the “fresh" electrons from the current. The non-existence of the anomalous X-rays from such transitions then set the upper limit for a PEP violation. Following this method, the VIP (VIolation of Pauli Exclusion Principle) experiment improved the sensitivity due to high resolution X-ray detectors and background suppression at LNGS in Gran Sasso. It obtained an upper limit at the level of 10^(-29) for the probability that an external electron captured by a Cu atom can de-excite to the 1s state already occupied by two electrons. The experiment and the results will be presented. The preparation of the follow-up experiment VIP-2 planned at Gran Sasso, aiming to increase the sensitivity by two orders of magnitude, will also be shown.
Author
Co-authors
Catalina Curceanu
(LNF-INFN)
Hexi Shi
(LNF INFN)
Johann Marton
(Oesterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften)
