Application of photon detectors in the VIP2 experiment to test the Pauli Exclusion Principle

M. Iliescu (1) , T. Ishiwatari (2) , M. Laubenstein (3) , J. Marton (4) , E. Milotti (5) , D. Pietreanu (1, 2) , K. Piscicchia (1, 6) , T. Ponta (2) , E. Sbardella (1) , A. Scordo (1) , H. Shi (1, 4) , D. Sirghi (7) , F. Sirghi (1, 2) , L. Sperandio (1) , O. Vazquez-Doce , E. Widmann (4) , J. Zmeskal (4) , A. Pichler (4) , S. Bartalucci (1) , M. Bazzi (1) , S. Bertolucci (1) , C. Berucci (4, 1) , M. Bragadireanu (1) , M. Cargnelli (4) , A. Clozza (1) , C. Curceanu (1, 2, 6) , L. de Paolis (1) , Sergio Di Matteo (8) , A. d'Ufflzi , J.-P. Egger (9) , C. Guaraldo (1)

1 LNF - Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati = National Laboratory of Frascati
2 NIPNE - Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering
3 LNGS - Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso
4 SMI - Stefan Meyer Institut für subatomare Physik
5 Dipartimento di Fisica [Trieste]
6 Enrico Fermi Center for Study and Research | Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche Enrico Fermi
7 IFIN HH - National Institut for Nuclear Physics and Engineering
8 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes
9 UNINE - Université de Neuchâtel = University of Neuchatel

The Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) was introduced by the austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli in 1925. Since then, several experiments have checked its validity. From 2006 until 2010, the VIP (Violation of the Pauli Principle) experiment took data at the LNGS underground laboratory to test the PEP. This experiment looked for electronic 2p to Is transitions in copper, where 2 electrons are in the Is state before the transition happens. These transitions violate the PEP. The lack of detection of X-ray photons coming from these transitions resulted in a preliminary upper limit for the violation of the PEP of 4.7 × 10-29. Currently, the successor experiment VIP2 is under preparation. The main improvements are, on one side, the use of Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) as X-ray photon detectors. On the other side an active shielding is implemented, which consists of plastic scintillator bars read by Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs). The employment of these detectors will improve the upper limit for the violation of the PEP by around 2 orders of magnitude. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Mots clés: Astrophysics; Cosmology; Particle beams; Photodetectors; Photons; Quantum theory; Active shielding; Orders of magnitude; Pauli exclusion principle; Pauli principle; Plastic scintillator; Silicon Drift Detector; Silicon photomultiplier; Underground laboratory; Silicon detectors

Domaines: Physique [physics]

M. Iliescu, T. Ishiwatari, M. Laubenstein, J. Marton, E. Milotti, et al.. Application of photon detectors in the VIP2 experiment to test the Pauli Exclusion Principle. 14th International Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics, TAUP 2015, Sep 2015, Torino, Italy. pp.52030, ⟨10.1088/1742-6596/718/5/052030⟩. ⟨hal-01372789⟩