High Sensitivity Pauli Exclusion Principle Tests by the VIP Experiment: Status and Perspectives

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.