Testing the Pauli Exclusion Principle in LNGS underground laboratory*

The VIP2 experiment is a good example for the spin-off of nuclear physics for underground experiments searching for “new” physics. VIP2 at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS, Italy) is searching for possible violations of standard quantum mechanics predictions in atoms at very high sensitivity. We investigate atomic transitions with precision X-ray spectroscopy in order to test the Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) and therefore related the spin-statistics theorem. We will present our experimental method for the search for "anomalous" (i.e. Pauli-forbidden) X-ray transitions in copper atoms. We will describe the VIP2 experimental setup, which is taking data at LNGS presently. The goal of VIP2 is to test the PEP for electrons with unprecedented accuracy, down to a limit in the probability that PEP is violated at the level of 10E-31. We will present current experimental results and discuss implications of a possible violation.