New limit on the Pauli Exclusion Principle violation by electrons

The Pauli Exclusion Principle is one of the fundamental principles of modern physics and is at the very basis of our understanding of matter: thus it is of foremost importance to test the limits of its validity. Here we present the VIP (Violation of the Pauli Exclusion Principle) experiment, where we search 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 at least four orders of magnitude the previous limit on the probability of Pauli-violating transitions, bringing it into the 10(-30) region. First experimental results, together with future plans, are presented.