Test of the Pauli Exclusion Principle for Atomic Electrons

Abstract

The Pauli exclusion principle has been tested for atomic electrons giving a lifetime for such a violation, per iodine atom, of > 2 \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} ${10}^{27}$ sec. This result is compared to a normal electromagnetic dipole transition, and a limit is set on a possible symmetric wave-function admixture to a $K$-shell electron wave function.