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

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 - 10^-30 region. The new experimental results, together with future plans, are presented.