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Title: Search for Pauli exclusion principle violating atomic transitions and electron decay with a p-type point contact germanium detector

Journal Article · · European Physical Journal. C, Particles and Fields
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  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
  4. National Research Centre (NRC), Moscow (Russian Federation). Kurchatov Inst. (NRCKI)
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  6. Joint Inst. for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna (Russian Federation)
  7. Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States); Triangle Univ. Nuclear Lab., Durham, NC (United States)
  8. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
  9. South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD (United States)
  10. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  11. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  12. Osaka Univ. (Japan)
  13. Triangle Univ. Nuclear Lab., Durham, NC (United States); Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
  14. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Triangle Univ. Nuclear Lab., Durham, NC (United States)
  15. Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
  16. Univ. of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD (United States)
  17. Black Hills State Univ., Spearfish, SD (United States)
  18. Tennessee Tech Univ., Cookeville, TN (United States)
  19. Queen's Univ., Kingston, ON (Canada)
  20. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
  21. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  22. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Triangle Univ. Nuclear Lab., Durham, NC (United States); Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

A search for Pauli-exclusion-principle-violating Kα electron transitions was performed using 89.5 kg-d of data collected with a p-type point contact high-purity germanium detector operated at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility. A lower limit on the transition lifetime of 5.8×1030 s at 90% C.L. was set by looking for a peak at 10.6 keV resulting from the X-ray and Auger electrons present following the transition. A similar analysis was done to look for the decay of atomic K-shell electrons into neutrinos, resulting in a lower limit of 6.8×1030 s at 90% C.L. It is estimated that the Majorana Demonstrator, a 44 kg array of p-type point contact detectors that will search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge, could improve upon these exclusion limits by an order of magnitude after three years of operation.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP); National Science Foundation (NSF); Russian Foundation for Basic Research; USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC52-06NA25396; FG02-97ER41041; FG02-97ER41033; FG02-97ER41042; SC0012612; FG02-10ER41715; SC0010254; FG02-97ER41020; PHY-0919270; PHY- 1003940; 0855314; PHY-1202950; MRI 0923142; 1003399; 15-02-02919; AC05-76RL01830; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1345144
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1339027; OSTI ID: 1377563; OSTI ID: 1489586
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-15-28760; PNNL-SA-123051; TRN: US1701260
Journal Information:
European Physical Journal. C, Particles and Fields, Vol. 76, Issue 11; ISSN 1434-6044
Publisher:
SpringerCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 12 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (21)

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  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 701 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2012.11.004
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Cited By (5)

Non-commutative quantum gravity phenomenology in underground experiments journal September 2019
Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Experiments With TeO2 Low-Temperature Detectors journal June 2019
New Limits on Bosonic Dark Matter, Solar Axions, Pauli Exclusion Principle Violation, and Electron Decay from the Majorana Demonstrator text January 2017
New limits on Bosonic Dark Matter, Solar Axions, Pauli Exclusion Principle Violation, and Electron Decay from the Majorana Demonstrator text January 2016
Underground test of quantum mechanics - the VIP2 experiment preprint January 2017

Figures / Tables (2)

Fig. 1(p. 3)figure Fig. 1
Fig. 2(p. 4)figure Fig. 2

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Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
Atomic and Nuclear Physics
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
experimental limit
bose statistics
Fermi