International Atomic Energy Agency THE ABDUS SALAM INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS AHARONOV-CASHER PHASE SHIFT AND THE CHANGE IN VELOCITY OF A MOVING MAGNET TRAVERSING AN ELECTRIC FIELD
Motivated by the theoretical work of Boyer [J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 39 (2006) 3455] plus the quite recent interferometric experiment of Shinohara, Aoki and Morinaga [Phys. Rev. A66 (2002) 042106] in which the scalar Aharonov-Bohm effect was studied, we re-open the extension to neutral particles carrying a magnetic moment and passing through a region of intense electric field, treated theoretically by Aharonov and Casher (AC) and independently by Anandan. An alternative interpretation of results on (a) neutrons and (b) TlF molecules to that afforded by AC is shown to involve only (i) the de Broglie wavelength of matter waves and (ii) the prediction from Maxwell’s equations for the change in velocity of a neutral moving magnet as it enters or leaves an electric field. The exquisite sensitivity of experiment (b) allows a fractional change in velocity of order 10 15 to be quantitatively determined.
Motivated by the theoretical work of Boyer [J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 39 (2006) 3455] plus the quite recent interferometric experiment of Shinohara, Aoki and Morinaga [Phys. Rev. A66 (2002) 042106] in which the scalar Aharonov-Bohm effect was studied, we re-open the extension to neutral particles carrying a magnetic moment and passing through a region of intense electric field, treated theoretically by Aharonov and Casher (AC) and independently by Anandan. An alternative interpretation of results on (a) neutrons and (b) TlF molecules to that afforded by AC is shown to involve only (i) the de Broglie wavelength of matter waves and (ii) the prediction from Maxwell’s equations for the change in velocity of a neutral moving magnet as it enters or leaves an electric field. The exquisite sensitivity of experiment (b) allows a fractional change in velocity of order 10 15 to be quantitatively determined.
When a moving magnetic dipole enters a strong electric field the velocity of the magnet changes by a tiny amount. When a polarized, coherent beam of magnetic particles is split, the two parts passed through strong electric fields of opposite sign, then rejoined, interference patterns are observed due to the phase shift between the de Broglie waves of the two branches. Two recent, extremely delicate experiments, one using neutron interferometry and the second using F nuclei in TlF molecules, are reviewed and interpreted in this way. The fractional velocity change was 1 part in for the neutrons and 1 in for the TlF molecules. This explains the phase shift discussed by Aharonov and Casher and, contrary to their statement, is not equivalent to an Aharonov - Bohm effect. The latter requires that a de Broglie wave phase shift be produced by a vector potential in the absence of a field.
When an electron beam passes outside a confined magnetic flux, the motional magnetic field of the electrons overlaps the confined flux. The potential energy of the magnetic dipolar interaction of the motional magnetic field with the confined magnetic flux causes the velocity of the electrons to change slightly, which shifts the phase of the electron de Broglie wave. When portions of an electron beam pass on different sides of a confined flux and are then mixed, they produce an interference pattern. There is a similar magnetic dipolar interaction, with resulting velocity and phase changes, when a beam of magnetic particles interacts with the motional magnetic flux produced by their crossing a strong electric field. These are classical electromagnetic dipolar (not Lorentz) interactions that causes changes in Berry's geometrical phase, but are not ESAB or AC effects. Data that were suggested to demonstrate the ESAB and AC effects have been quantitatively interpreted in terms of motional magnetic fields and velocity changes.
In this paper we give a covariant expression for Aharonov–Casher phase. This expression is a combination of the canonical electric field, Aharonov–Casher phase plus a magnetic field phase shift. We use this covariant expression for the Aharonov–Casher phase to investigate the case of a neutral particle with a non-zero magnetic moment moving in the time dependent electric and magnetic fields of a plane electromagnetic wave background. We focus on the case where the magnetic moment of the particle is oriented so that both the electric and magnetic fields lead to non-zero phases, and we look at the interplay between these electric and magnetic phases.
A phase shift for de Broglie waves due to the action of a scalar potential in an otherwise field-free (i.e., force-free) region of space is known as the scalar Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect. Unlike the more familiar AB effect due to the magnetic vector potential, the scalar effect has hitherto remained unverified due, presumably, to technical difficulties in electron interferometry. We have performed an analogous interferometric experiment with thermal neutrons subject to pulsed magnetic fields. The observations were carried out at the University of Missouri Research Reactor using a skew-symmetric perfect-silicon-crystal neutron interferometer. The expected phase shifts have been observed to a high degree of accuracy. A detailed description of the experiment and its interpretation is given in this paper.
In 1984 Aharonov and Casher proposed that a beam of neutral particles with magnetic dipole moments passing around opposite sides of a line charge will undergo a relative quantum phase shift. This is currently under experimental investigation. Aharonov and Casher claimed that the magnetic dipole particles should undergo the phase shift despite experiencing no classical force. They suggested that this new effect has a ``duality'' with the solenoid Aharonov-Bohm effect where charged particles passing around a magnetic solenoid experience a phase shift despite, it is claimed, experiencing no classical force. Here it is pointed out that a magnetic dipole particle passing a line charge does indeed experience a classical electromagnetic force in the usual electric-current model for a magnetic dipole. This force will produce a relative lag between dipoles passing on opposite sides of the line charge, and the classical lag then leads to a quantum phase shift in exact agreement with that calculated by Aharonov and Casher. Thus actually the proposed Aharonov-Casher effect has a transparent explanation as a classical lag effect. It is emphasized that the solenoid Aharonov-Bohm effect is currently the only phase-shift effect which cannot be explained in an obvious fashion as arising from a classical lag and it is again proposed that also this shift may actually involve a classical electromagnetic lag effect. A natural experimental consequence suggested by the lag point of view is the breakdown of the interference pattern when the lag becomes comparable to the wave-packet coherence length.
The seminal paper of Aharonov and Bohm [Phys. Rev. 115, 485 (1959)]10.1103/PhysRev.115.485 is at the origin of a very extensive literature in some of the more fundamental issues in physics. They claimed that electromagnetic fields can act at a distance on charged particles even if they are identically zero in the region of space where the particles propagate, that the fundamental electromagnetic quantities in quantum physics are not only the electromagnetic fields but also the circulations of the electromagnetic potentials; what gives them a real physical significance. They proposed two experiments to verify their theoretical conclusions. The magnetic Aharonov-Bohm effect, where an electron is influenced by a magnetic field that is zero in the region of space accessible to the electron, and the electric Aharonov-Bohm effect where an electron is affected by a time-dependent electric potential that is constant in the region where the electron is propagating, i.e., such that the electric field vanishes along its trajectory. The Aharonov-Bohm effects imply such a strong departure from the physical intuition coming from classical physics that it is no wonder that they remain a highly controversial issue after more than fifty years, in spite of the fact that they are discussed in most of the text books in quantum mechanics. The magnetic case has been studied extensively. The experimental issues were settled by the remarkable experiments of Tonomura et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 48, 1443 (1982); Phys. Rev. Lett. 56, 792 (1986)] with toroidal magnets, that gave a strong evidence of the existence of the effect, and by the recent experiment of Caprez et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 210401 (2007)]10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.210401 that shows that the results of the Tonomura et al. experiments cannot be explained by the action of a force. The theoretical issues were settled by Ballesteros and Weder [Commun. Math. Phys. 285, 345 (2009)10.1007/s00220-008-0579-1; J. Math. Phys. 50, 122108 (2009)10.1063/1.3266176; Commun. Math. Phys. 303, 175 (2011)]10.1007/s00220-010-1166-9 who rigorously proved that quantum mechanics predicts the experimental results of Tonomura et al. and of Caprez et al. The electric Aharonov-Bohm effect has been much less studied. Actually, its existence, that has not been confirmed experimentally, is a very controversial issue. In their 1959 paper Aharonov and Bohm proposed an ansatz for the solution to the Schrödinger equation in regions where there is a time-dependent electric potential that is constant in space. It consists in multiplying the free evolution by a phase given by the integral in time of the potential. The validity of this ansatz predicts interference fringes between parts of a coherent electron beam that are subjected to different potentials. In this paper we prove that the exact solution to the Schrödinger equation is given by the Aharonov-Bohm ansatz up to an error bound in norm that is uniform in time and that decays as a constant divided by the velocity. Our results give, for the first time, a rigorous proof that quantum mechanics predicts the existence of the electric Aharonov-Bohm effect, under conditions that we provide. We hope that our results will stimulate the experimental research on the electric Aharonov-Bohm effect.