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Classical and Quantum Gravity

Gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect in a locally flat spacetime

V. B. Bezerra

Published Oct 1, 1991• 37 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A quantum particle is considered in the background gravitational field due to a tubular matter source with axial interior magnetic field and vanishing exterior magnetic field. It is shown that in the locally flat spacetime around this tubular matter source, the wavefunction, the energy spectrum and the probability current depend on the amount of matter and magnetic field. These dependences represent gravitational analogues of the Aharonov-Bohm effect in electrodynamics.

DOI
10.1088/0264-9381/8/10/017

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A quantum particle is considered in the background gravitational field due to a tubular matter source with axial interior magnetic field and vanishing exterior magnetic field. It is shown that in the locally flat spacetime around this tubular matter source, the wavefunction, the energy spectrum and the probability current depend on the amount of matter and magnetic field. These dependences represent gravitational analogues of the Aharonov-Bohm effect in electrodynamics.
We study the quantum interference of two paths that enclose a slowly rotating, infinitely long, and infinitely thin cylindrical shell, using the spacetime metric induced by the gravitational source. We show that the rotation of the shell affects the interference pattern even though it does not contribute to the classical motion of particles propagating outside the shell. Furthermore, we find that the gravitomagnetic field is non-vanishing only in the region inside the shell, yet it contributes to the interference taking place entirely in the exterior region. This phenomenon is therefore a gravitational analogue of the Aharonov-Bohm effect, in which a field confined to an inaccessible region influences the quantum phase of particles propagating in a field-free region.
We investigate the gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect by placing a quantum system in free fall around a gravitating body, e.g., a satellite orbiting the Earth. Since the system is in free fall, by the equivalence principle, the quantum system is local in flat, gravity free space-time---it is screened from the gravitational field. For a slightly elliptical orbit, the gravitational potential will change with time. This leads to the energy levels of the quantum system developing sidebands which is the signature for this version of the Aharonov-Bohm effect. This contrasts with the normal signature of the Aharonov-Bohm effect of shifting of interference fringes.
The gauge invariance of the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect with a quantum treatment for the electromagnetic field is demonstrated. We provide an exact solution for the electromagnetic ground energy due to the interaction of the quantum electromagnetic field with the classical charges and currents that act as sources of the potentials in a classical description, in the Lorenz gauge. Then, we use first-order perturbation theory to compute an extra change on the electromagnetic ground energy due to the presence of a quantum charged particle with known wave function in the system. This energy in general depends on the quantum particle path in an interferometer, which results in an AB phase difference between the paths. The gauge invariance of this AB phase difference is then shown for the magnetic, electric, and the recently proposed electrodynamic versions of the AB effect. However, the AB phase difference could depend on the gauge for nonclosed paths, which reinforces the view that it only can be measured in closed paths.
Abstract We consider different schemes for the electrodynamic Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect introduced in Saldanha P. L., Phys. Rev. A , 108 (2023) 062218, exploring the phenomenon to enhance the understanding of its topological nature in spacetime. In the treated examples, the electric current in a solenoid varies in time, changing its internal magnetic field and producing an external electric field, while a quantum charged particle is in a superposition state inside two Faraday cages in an interferometer. The Faraday cages cancel the electric field at their interiors, such that the particle is always subjected to null electromagnetic fields. We discuss how the AB phase difference depends on the topology of the electric and magnetic fields in spacetime in the different treated situations. In particular, we discuss interesting results when a conducting wire connects the two Faraday cages, with the AB phase depending on the wire position. We also show an amplification of the AB phase when the wire makes several turns around the solenoid, which could enable an experimental verification of the effect.
This paper investigates a geometric framework for the gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect in four-dimensional spacetime, demonstrating how spacetime curvature induces nonlocal quantum phase shifts within field-free regions. By constructing vector bundles on spacetime manifolds equipped with Levi-Civita connections, we derive the holonomy transformations for parallel-transported quantum states. Under the Newtonian approximation, metric decomposition into Minkowski background plus scalar potential perturbations reveals through the linearized Einstein field equations that the gravitationally induced phase shift is mathematically isomorphic to its electromagnetic counterpart. These results establish the quantum observability of gravitational gauge structures and provide theoretical support for experimental verification via atom interferometry.