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The VIP Collaboration is performing high sensitivity tests of the Pauli exclusion principle for electrons in the extremely-low cosmic background environment of the Gran Sasso underground National Laboratory of INFN. In its open-systems configuration, the experiment checks the continuously renewed symmetry state of the conductive target, constantly supplied with electrons through a direct current. Consequently, VIP is operating the sole experiment challenging the spin-statistics connection in compliance with the Messiah-Greenberg superselection rule. The strongest bounds set by the VIP-2 experiment on the Pauli exclusion principle violation probability, by exploiting a copper target, will be reviewed. The future VIP-3 experiment will be presented, the aim of which is to map the Pauli exclusion principle violation probability as a function of the atomic number of the target under test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high brilliance and coherent beams resulting from recent upgraded synchrotron radiation facilities open the way for a large range of experiments, where detectors play a key role in the techniques and methods developed to fully exploit the upgraded synchrotron. For instance, one of the major limitations of XAFS experiment is the performance of the detectors. In order to be able to measure more challenging samples and to cope with the very high photon flux of the current and future (diffraction limited) sources, technological developments of detectors are necessary. In this framework, the germanium detector developed in the European project LEAPS-INNOV aims at improving several technological aspects. This type of detector represents a very important class of instruments for X-ray spectroscopy due to the fact that they enable to detect efficiently photons of considerable higher energy with respect to silicon detectors. The objective of this project consists in pushing the detector performance beyond the state-of-the-art. Preliminary layout and main choices for the design studies of this new detector are presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Besides their application in point and shoot cameras, webcams, and cell phones, it has been shown that CMOS image sensors (CIS) can be used for dosimetry, X-ray and neutron imaging applications. In this work we will discuss the application of an ON Semiconductor MT9M001 CIS, in low energy X-ray spectroscopy. The device is a monochromatic front-side illuminated sensor, very popular in consumer electronics. In this work we introduce the configuration selected for the mentioned sensor, the image processing techniques and event selection criteria, implemented in order to measure the X-ray energy in the range from 1 to 10 keV. Several fluorescence lines of different samples have been resolved, and for first time the line resolution have been measured and analyzed. We achieved a FWHM of 232 eV at 6.4 keV, and we concluded that incomplete charge collection (ICC) of the charge produced by the X-ray contributes to the resolution, being this effect more important at higher X-ray energies. The results analyzed in this work indicate that the mentioned CIS are specially suitable for X-ray applications in which energy and spatial resolutions are simultaneously required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]