Quantum Measurement and the Aharonov-Bohm Effect with Superposed Magnetic Fluxes

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum superpositions of magnetic flux influence the Aharonov-Bohm effect, revealing nonlocal information about flux states without disturbance, through interference patterns involving many particles.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the Aharonov-Bohm interference pattern encodes information about superposed magnetic fluxes without energy transfer, using nonlocal interactions with multiple particles.

Findings

Interference pattern contains information about superposed flux states.

Information can be extracted without energy or momentum transfer.

Proposes an experimental test with superconducting rings.

Abstract

We consider the magnetic flux in a quantum mechanical superposition of two values and find that the Aharonov-Bohm effect interference pattern contains information about the nature of the superposition, allowing information about the state of the flux to be extracted without disturbance. The information is obtained without transfer of energy or momentum and by accumulated nonlocal interactions of the vector potential $\vec{A}$ with many charged particles forming the interference pattern, rather than with a single particle. We suggest an experimental test using already experimentally realized superposed currents in a superconducting ring and discuss broader implications.