Quon Statistics for Composite Systems and a Limit on the Violation of the Pauli Principle for Nucleons and Quarks

Abstract

The quon algebra gives a description of particles, ``quons,'' that are neither fermions nor bosons. The parameter $q$ attached to a quon labels a smooth interpolation between bosons, for which $q = +1$, and fermions, for which $q = -1$. Wigner and Ehrenfest and Oppenheimer showed that a composite system of identical bosons and fermions is a fermion if it contains an odd number of fermions and is a boson otherwise. Here we generalize this result to composite systems of identical quons. We find $q_{composite}=q_{constituent}^{n^2}$ for a system of $n$ identical quons. This result reduces to the earlier result for bosons and fermions. Using this generalization we find bounds on possible violations of the Pauli exclusion principle for nucleons and quarks based on such bounds for nuclei.