PNNL

Abstract

We present experimental tests of two fundamental principles arising from mathematical frame works of quantum mechanics. These tests were performed with the Majorana Demonstrator, a neutrinoless double beta decay search experiment located 4850 ft underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. We searched for peak-like signatures predicted from a Pauli exclusion principle violating atomic transition in germanium at 10.6 keV, and the charge non-conserving e- ? ???? decay of a K-shell electron in germanium at 11.1 keV. We observed no evidence for exotic physics enabling violations of either of the two principles, and have set the most stringent upper limits on both phenomena. For the Type-III Pauli exclusion principle violating atomic transition, we obtained an upper limit of 1 2ß2 3.2 × 1025 y (90% C.L.).