Abstract

Many experiments investigated the possible violation of the Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) since its discovery in 1925. The VIP(Violation of the Pauli Principle) experiment tested the PEP by measuring the probability for an external electron to be captured and undergo a 2p to 1s transition during its cascading process, with the 1s state already occupied by two electrons. This transition is forbidden by the PEP. The VIP experiment resulted in an upper limit for the probability of PEP violation of 4.7 × 10−29. Currently a setup for the follow up experiment VIP2 is under preparation. The goal of this experiment is to improve the upper limit for the violation of the PEP by two orders of magnitude, by using new X-ray detectors and by implementing an active shielding. We then present the idea of using an analogous experimental technique to search for X rays as a signature of the spontaneous collapse of the wave function, predicted by the continuous spontaneous localization theories, and discuss some very encouraging preliminary results.

Details

Title
Experimental search for the “impossible atoms” Pauli Exclusion Principle violation and spontaneous collapse of the wave function at test
Author
Curceanu, C 1 ; Bartalucci, S 2 ; Bassi, A 3 ; Bertolucci, S 4 ; Berucci, C 5 ; Bragadireanu, A M 6 ; Cargnelli, M 7 ; Clozza, A 2 ; De Paolis, L 2 ; S Di Matteo 8 ; Donadi, S 3 ; d'Uffizi, A 2 ; J-P Egger 9 ; Guaraldo, C 2 ; Iliescu, M 2 ; Ishiwatari, T 7 ; Laubenstein, M 10 ; Marton, J 7 ; Milotti, E 3 ; Pietreanu, D 6 ; Piscicchia, K 11 ; Ponta, T 12 ; Sbardella, E 2 ; Scordo, A 2 ; Shi, H 2 ; Sirghi, D L 6 ; Sirghi, F 6 ; Sperandio, L 2 ; O Vazquez Doce 13 ; Zmeskal, J 7 

 INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, CP 13, Via E. Fermi 40, I-00044, Frascati (Roma), Italy; “Horia Hulubei”National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Str. Atomistilor no. 407, P.O. Box MG-6, Bucharest - Magurele, Romania; Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche “Enrico Fermi”, Roma, Italy 
 INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, CP 13, Via E. Fermi 40, I-00044, Frascati (Roma), Italy 
 Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Trieste and INFN- Sezione di Trieste, Via Valerio, 2, I-34127 Trieste, Italy 
 CERN, CH-1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland 
 INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, CP 13, Via E. Fermi 40, I-00044, Frascati (Roma), Italy; The Stefan Meyer Institute for Subatomic Physics, Boltzmanngasse 3, A-1090 Vienna, Austria 
 INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, CP 13, Via E. Fermi 40, I-00044, Frascati (Roma), Italy; “Horia Hulubei”National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Str. Atomistilor no. 407, P.O. Box MG-6, Bucharest - Magurele, Romania 
 The Stefan Meyer Institute for Subatomic Physics, Boltzmanngasse 3, A-1090 Vienna, Austria 
 Institut de Physique UMR CNRS-UR1 6251, Université de Rennes1, F-35042 Rennes, France 
 Institut de Physique, Université de Neuchâtel, 1 rue A.-L. Breguet, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland 
10  INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, S.S. 17/bis, I-67010 Assergi (AQ), Italy 
11  INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, CP 13, Via E. Fermi 40, I-00044, Frascati (Roma), Italy; Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche “Enrico Fermi”, Roma, Italy 
12  “Horia Hulubei”National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Str. Atomistilor no. 407, P.O. Box MG-6, Bucharest - Magurele, Romania 
13  Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany 
Publication year
2015
Publication date
Jul 2015
Publisher
IOP Publishing
ISSN
17426588
e-ISSN
17426596
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2576373040
Copyright
© 2015. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.