Three Faces of the Aharonov-Bohm Phase

TL;DR

This paper explores the Aharonov-Bohm effect, illustrating how magnetic flux influences quantum interference in field-free regions, and discusses its implications for magnetic flux quantization and magnetic monopoles.

Contribution

It provides a clear, explicit derivation of the Aharonov-Bohm effect and highlights its fundamental role in quantum theory, gauge invariance, and magnetic flux quantization.

Findings

Demonstrates the non-classical phase shift caused by magnetic flux in field-free regions.

Shows the connection between AB phase and magnetic flux quantization in superconductors.

Links the AB effect to the theoretical existence of magnetic monopoles.

Abstract

Beginning with the basic notions of quantum theory, impossibility of `trajectory' description for particles that ensues from uncertainty principle is discussed. Why the observed tracks in bubble/cloud chambers are not really the `trajectories' of high energy particles, rather they are simply the trails of the atoms/molecules excited or ionized in the direction of the high momenta of the incoming particles, are highlighted. Thereafter, the notion of symmetry and its application to the non-relativistic Schrodinger equation have been delineated. The demand for U(1) gauge invariance and the resulting `gauge miracle', that automatically leads to the correct interaction terms describing the electromagnetic force between the charge particles and the field, have been elaborated upon. A simple treatment, but with explicit derivation, of the Aharonov-Bohm effect, is presented, that underlines a strange phenomena - sites, impenetrable by charge particles but are threaded with magnetic field lines, conspire with a `Trojan Horse', namely the magnetic vector potential outside, to cause measurable shift in the double-slit interference fringes. This shift in the interference pattern is non-classical since the charge particles move in field-free regions. The crucial Aharonov-Bohm (AB) phase that makes its entry in the above bizarre effect is also deployed to derive the observed magnetic flux quantisation in superconductors as well as the Dirac result which implies that the existence of a single magnetic monopole anywhere in the universe would entail quantisation of the product of a particle's electric charge and the monopole's magnetic charge. Nontrivial consequences of AB phase follow whenever the physical region accessible, from the point of view of the wavefunction of a charge particle, is multiply-connected.