VIP: AN EXPERIMENT TO SEARCH FOR A VIOLATION OF THE PAULI EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE

The Pauli Exclusion Principle is a basic principle of Quantum Mechanics, and its validity has never been seriously challenged. However, given its fundamental standing, it is very important to check it as thoroughly as possible. Here we describe the VIP (VIolation of the Pauli exclusion principle) experiment, an improved version of the Ramberg and Snow experiment (E. Ramberg and G. Snow, Phys. Lett. B238, 438 (1990)); VIP has just completed the installation at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory, and aims to test the Pauli Exclusion Principle for electrons with unprecedented accuracy, down to β2/2 ≈ 10-30 - 10-31. We report preliminary experimental results and briefly discuss some of the implications of a possible violation.

Download Full-text

Quantum mechanics under X-rays in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory

International Journal of Quantum Information ◽

10.1142/s0219749917400044 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 15 (08) ◽

pp. 1740004 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Catalina Curceanu ◽

Diana Sirghi ◽

Florin Sirghi ◽

Sergio Bartalucci ◽

Massimiliano Bazzi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Measurement Problem ◽

Pauli Exclusion Principle ◽

Underground Laboratory ◽

Exclusion Principle ◽

X Rays ◽

X Ray ◽

Localization Model ◽

Continuous Spontaneous Localization ◽

Broad Region

By performing X-ray measurements in the “cosmic silence” of the underground laboratory of Gran Sasso, LNGS-INFN, we test a basic principle of quantum mechanics: the Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) for electrons. We present the achieved results of the VIP experiment and the ongoing VIP2 measurement aiming to gain two orders of magnitude improvement in testing PEP. X-ray emission can also be used to put strong constraints on the parameters of the Continuous Spontaneous Localization Model, which was introduced as a possible solution to the measurement problem in Quantum Mechanics. A Bayesian analysis of the data collected by IGEX will be presented, which allows to exclude a broad region of the parameter space which characterizes this model.

Download Full-text

X rays on quantum mechanics: Pauli Exclusion Principle and collapse models at test

Journal of Physics Conference Series ◽

10.1088/1742-6596/631/1/012068 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 631 ◽

pp. 012068 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

C Curceanu ◽

S Bartalucci ◽

A Bassi ◽

S Bertolucci ◽

C Berucci ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Pauli Exclusion Principle ◽

Exclusion Principle ◽

X Rays ◽

Collapse Models

Download Full-text

Quantum Mechanics and the Periodic Table

The Periodic Table ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190914363.003.0014 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Eric Scerri

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Quantum Theory ◽

Periodic Table ◽

Chemical Properties ◽

Pauli Exclusion Principle ◽

Niels Bohr ◽

Exclusion Principle ◽

Old Quantum Theory ◽

Set Up ◽

Three Body

In chapter 7, the influence of the old quantum theory on the periodic system was considered. Although the development of this theory provided a way of reexpressing the periodic table in terms of the number of outer-shell electrons, it did not yield anything essentially new to the understanding of chemistry. Indeed, in several cases, chemists such as Irving Langmuir, J.D. Main Smith, and Charles Bury were able to go further than physicists in assigning electronic configurations, as described in chapter 8, because they were more familiar with the chemical properties of individual elements. Moreover, despite the rhetoric in favor of quantum mechanics that was propagated by Niels Bohr and others, the discovery that hafnium was a transition metal and not a rare earth was not made deductively from the quantum theory. It was essentially a chemical fact that was accommodated in terms of the quantum mechanical understanding of the periodic table. The old quantum theory was quantitatively impotent in the context of the periodic table since it was not possible to even set up the necessary equations to begin to obtain solutions for the atoms with more than one electron. An explanation could be given for the periodic table in terms of numbers of electrons in the outer shells of atoms, but generally only after the fact. But when it came to trying to predict quantitative aspects of atoms, such as the ground-state energy of the helium atom, the old quantum theory was quite hopeless. As one physicist stated, “We should not be surprised . . . even the astronomers have not yet satisfactorily solved the three-body problem in spite of efforts over the centuries.” A succession of the best minds in physics, including Hendrik Kramers, Werner Heisenberg, and Arnold Sommerfeld, made strenuous attempts to calculate the spectrum of helium but to no avail. It was only following the introduction of the Pauli exclusion principle and the development of the new quantum mechanics that Heisenberg succeeded where everyone else had failed.

Download Full-text

Experimental tests of quantum mechanics: Pauli Exclusion Principle Violation (the VIP experiment) and future perspectives

Physics Procedia ◽

10.1016/j.phpro.2011.06.015 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 17 ◽

pp. 40-48 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

C. Curceanu (Petrascu) ◽

S. Bartalucci ◽

S. Bertolucci ◽

M. Bragadireanu ◽

M. Cargnelli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Experimental Tests ◽

Pauli Exclusion Principle ◽

Exclusion Principle ◽

Future Perspectives

Download Full-text

Experimental tests of quantum mechanics: Pauli exclusion principle violation and spontaneous collapse models

10.1063/1.3688992 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Catalina Curceanu ◽

S. Bartalucci ◽

A. Bassi ◽

S. Bertolucci ◽

M. Bragadireanu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Experimental Tests ◽

Pauli Exclusion Principle ◽

Exclusion Principle ◽

Collapse Models

Download Full-text

VIP EXPERIMENT: NEW EXPERIMENTAL LIMIT ON PAULI EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE VIOLATION BY ELECTRONS

International Journal of Modern Physics A ◽

10.1142/s0217751x0904395x ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 24 (02n03) ◽

pp. 506-510

Author(s):

◽

D. PIETREANU ◽

S. BARTALUCCI ◽

S. BERTOLUCCI ◽

M. BRAGADIREANU ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pauli Exclusion Principle ◽

Experimental Results ◽

Exclusion Principle ◽

X Rays ◽

Experimental Limit ◽

Basic Principles ◽

Forbidden Transition ◽

Scientific Goal ◽

Modern Physics ◽

Future Plans

The VIP (Violation of the Pauli Exclusion Principle) experiment is investigating one of the basic principles of modern physics, searching 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 three-four orders of magnitude the previous limit on the probability of Pauli violating transitions, bringing it into the 10-29÷-30 region. The new experimental results, together with future plans, are presented.

Download Full-text

Macroscopic Manifestations of Quantum Mechanics

10.1093/oso/9780198808275.003.0013 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Frank S. Levin

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Neutron Stars ◽

Stellar Evolution ◽

White Dwarf ◽

Pauli Exclusion Principle ◽

Exclusion Principle ◽

Energy Sources ◽

Maximum Height ◽

Quantum Behavior ◽

The Way

Some possibly unexpected macroscopic manifestations of quantum mechanics are described in Chapter 12. The first is a laser, a device both man-made and one that relies on phase effects to achieve its potent beam. How this is done is illustrated by a diagram. The next is an estimate of the maximum height of a mountain, whose result was originally shown to rely on quantum mechanics. That result, approximately 30 km, is followed by showing that white dwarf and neutron stars are each gigantic manifestations of the Pauli Exclusion Principle, the first mainly consisting of carbon nuclei and electrons, the second mainly of neutrons. In each case, the primary constituent is a fermion, whose quantum behavior is governed by the Exclusion Principle. Along the way to showing this is a review of stellar evolution and energy sources. The final example is the first quantum machine, which is barely macroscopic.

Download Full-text