New experimental limits on violations of the Pauli exclusion principle obtained with the Borexino counting test facility

Collaboration
Jun, 2004
10 pages
Published in:
  • Eur.Phys.J.C 37 (2004) 421-431
e-Print:
Experiments:

Citations per year

2004200920142019202402468
Abstract: (arXiv)
The Pauli exclusion principle (PEP) has been tested for nucleons (n,pn,p) in 12C^{12}C and 16O^{16}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 γ\gamma, nn, pp and/or α\alpha's emitted in a non-Paulian transition of 1PP- shell nucleons to the filled 1S1/2S_{1/2} shell in nuclei. Similarly, the Pauli-forbidden β±\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: τ(12C12Cundefined+γ)>2.11027\tau(^{12}C\to^{12}\widetilde{C}+\gamma) > 2.1\cdot10^{27} y, τ(12C11Bundefined+p)>5.01026\tau(^{12}C\to^{11}\widetilde{B}+ p) > 5.0\cdot10^{26} y, τ(12C(16O)11Cundefined(15Oundefined)+n)>3.71026\tau(^{12}C(^{16}O)\to^{11}\widetilde{C}(^{15}\widetilde{O})+ n) > 3.7 \cdot 10^{26} y, τ(12C8Beundefined+α)>6.11023\tau(^{12}C\to^{8}\widetilde{Be}+\alpha) > 6.1 \cdot 10^{23} y, τ(12C12Nundefined+e+νeundefined)>7.61027\tau(^{12}C\to^{12}\widetilde{N}+ e^- + \widetilde{\nu_e})> 7.6 \cdot 10^{27} y and τ(12C12Bundefined+e++νe)>7.71027\tau(^{12}C\to^{12}\widetilde{B}+ e^+ + \nu_e)> 7.7 \cdot 10^{27} y, all at 90% C.L.
Note:
  • 10 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to European Physical Journal C Spokesperson of the Borexino Collaboration: G.Bellini. Corresponding authors: A.Derbin, O.Smirnov
  • Pauli principle: validity test
  • nuclear properties
  • shell model
  • carbon: decay modes
  • oxygen: decay modes
  • energy levels: transition
  • photon: emission
  • nucleon: emission
  • helium: emission
  • electron: emission