Journal Article

New experimental limits on violations of the Pauli exclusion principle obtained with the Borexino Counting Test Facility

Gazzana, S., Oberauer, L., Harding, E., Razeto, A., Fernholz, R., Testera, G., Chen, M., Salvo, C., Heusser, G., Maneira, J., Tarasenkov, V., Giammarchi, M. G., Ianni, A., Manuzio, D., Monzani, M. E., Machulin, I., Mention, G., Sonnenschein, A., Skorokhvatov, M., Benziger, J., Dadoun, O., Sukhotin, S., Galbiati, C., Sabelnikov, A., Miramonti, L., Deutsch, M., Korschinek, G., Hampel, W., Vogelaar, R. B., Zaimidoroga, O., Franco, D., Musico, P., Bellini, G., Lendvai, C., Muratova, V., von Feilitzsch, F., Korga, G., Schimizzi, D., Ford, R., Buck, C., D’Angelo, D., Kobychev, V. V., Balata, M., Di Credico, A., Pallavicini, M., Manuzio, G., Sotnikov, A., Wojcik, M., Cecchet, G., Cadonati, L., Freudiger, B., Ranucci, G., Ianni, A. M., Grieb, C., Bonetti, S., Peiffer, P., Hartmann, F. X., Kozlov, Y., de Bari, A., Scardaoni, R., Kryn, D., Shutt, T., Malvezzi, S., Smirnov, O., Obolensky, M., Caccianiga, B., Meroni, E., Zuzel, G., Schoenert, S., de Bellefon, A., Mazzucato, U., Pocar, A., de Kerret, H., Suvorov, Y., Kirsten, T., Etenko, A., Ortica, F., Back, H. O., Simgen, H., Derbin, A., Manno, I., Martemianov, A., Raghavan, R. S., Tartaglia, R., Goeger-Neff, M

2004

Overview

The Pauli exclusion principle (PEP) has been tested for nucleons (n,p) in \\({}^{12}{\\rm C}\\) and \\({}^{16}{\\rm O}\\) nuclei, using the results of background measurements with the prototype of the Borexino detector, the Counting Test Facility (CTF). The approach consisted of a search for \\(\\gamma\\), n, p and/or \\(\\alpha\\)’s emitted in a non-Paulian transition of 1P- shell nucleons to the filled 1S1/2 shell in nuclei. Similarly, the Pauli-forbidden \\(\\beta^{\\pm}\\) decay processes were searched for. Due to the extremely low background and the large mass (4.2 tons) of the CTF detector, the following most stringent up-to-date experimental bounds on PEP violating transitions of nucleons have been established: \\(\\tau({}^{12}{\\rm C} \\rightarrow {}^{12}{\\rm\\widetilde C} + \\gamma) > 2.1\\cdot10^{27} \\mathrm y\\), \\(\\tau({}^{12}{\\rm C} \\rightarrow {}^{11}{\\rm\\widetilde B} + p) > 5.0\\cdot10^{26} {\\mathrm{y}}\\), \\(\\tau({}^{12}{\\rm C} ({}^{16}{\\rm O}) \\rightarrow {}^{11}{\\rm\\widetilde C} ({}^{15}{\\rm\\widetilde O} ) + n) > 3.7 \\cdot 10^{26} {\\mathrm{y}}\\), \\(\\tau({}^{12}{\\rm C} \\rightarrow {}^{8}{\\rm\\widetilde{Be}} + \\alpha) > 6.1 \\cdot 10^{23} \\mathrm y\\), \\(\\tau({}^{12}{\\rm C} \\rightarrow {}^{12}{\\rm\\widetilde N} + e^- + \\widetilde{\\nu_e}) > 7.6 \\cdot 10^{27} \\mathrm y\\) and \\(\\tau({}^{12}{\\rm C} \\rightarrow {}^{12}{\\rm\\widetilde B} + e^ + + \\nu_e) > 7.7 \\cdot 10^{27} \\mathrm y\\), all at \\(90 \\%\\) C.L.

• Publisher: Springer Nature B.V,Springer Verlag (Germany)
• Subject: Beta decay / Nuclei / Nucleons / Pauli exclusion principle