New experimental limit on Pauli Exclusion Principle violation by electrons (the VIP experiment)

TL;DR

The VIP experiment searches for violations of the Pauli Exclusion Principle by detecting anomalous X-rays in copper atoms, aiming to set a new, much stricter limit on such violations and test fundamental physics principles.

Contribution

This paper reports the first experimental results of the VIP experiment, significantly improving the limit on Pauli Exclusion Principle violations by four orders of magnitude.

Findings

No anomalous X-rays detected, setting new upper limits on violation probability.

Achieved sensitivity in the 10^-29 to 10^-30 range for Pauli violation transitions.

Future plans to further improve the experimental limits.

Abstract

The Pauli Exclusion Principle is one of the basic principles of modern physics and is at the very basis of our understanding of matter: thus it is fundamental importance to test the limits of its validity. Here we present the VIP (Violation of the Pauli Exclusion Principle) experiment, where we search for anomalous X-rays emitted by copper atoms in a conductor: any detection of these anomalous X-rays would mark a Pauli-forbidden transition. ] VIP is currently taking data at the Gran Sasso underground laboratories, and its scientific goal is to improve by at least four orders of magnitude the previous limit on the probability of Pauli violating transitions, bringing it into the 10**-29 - 10**-30 region. First experimental results, together with future plans, are presented.