Underground tests of quantum mechanics. Whispers in the cosmic silence?

C Curceanu ,Angelo Bassi ,S Di Matteo ,H Shi ,A Pichler ,D Pietreanu ,J Márton ,J P Egger ,E Milotti ,M Cargnelli ,K Piscicchia ,L De Paolis ,O Vázquez Doce ,A Scordo ,C Berucci ,M Laubenstein ,M Bazzi ,C Guaraldo ,F Sirghi ,S Bertolucci ,D Sirghi ,L Sperandio ,A Clozza ,Sandro Donadi ,A M Bragadireanu ,M Iliescu ,S Bartalucci ,J Zmeskal

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/880/1/012045

Abstract

By performing X-rays 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. We also use a similar experimental technique to search for radiation (X and gamma) predicted by continuous spontaneous localization models, which aim to solve the “measurement problem”.

Highlights

To the best of our knowledge, there are 2 spin-separated classes of particles: fermions, with half-integer spin, and bosons, with integer spin
We present the VIP2 setup, a major upgrade of VIP, which is using fast Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD) and a veto system, aiming to gain two orders of magnitude in Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) violation study
We presented the VIP experiment searching for the “impossible atoms”, i.e., atoms where the

Summary

Introduction

To the best of our knowledge, there are 2 spin-separated classes of particles: fermions, with half-integer spin, and bosons, with integer spin. Six SDDs units, with a total active area of 6 cm are mounted close to the Cu target, giving an acceptance which is about ten times as large as the acceptance of VIP CCDs. an active shielding system (veto) was implemented, to reduce the background in the energy region of the forbidden transition. An active shielding system (veto) was implemented, to reduce the background in the energy region of the forbidden transition These systems will have an important contribution to improve the limit for the violation of the PEP by two orders of magnitude with new data which are presently comming by running the VIP2 experiment at LNGS [10]. In the coming 3 years of run we will gain two orders of magnitude in the PEP violation probability or will have signals of a violation

X-ray measurements for testing the dynamical reduction models

Conclusions