Sharpening the Gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect

TL;DR

This paper explores the classical gravitational analogue of the Aharonov-Bohm effect using a complex scalar field, demonstrating its classical nature and connecting it to quantum descriptions.

Contribution

It clarifies that the gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect is fundamentally classical and bridges classical field theory with quantum particle perspectives.

Findings

The gravitational Aharonov-Bohm effect can be described classically.

The effect is not inherently quantum-mechanical.

A connection between classical field and quantum descriptions is established.

Abstract

We study the recent gravitational analogue of the Aharonov-Bohm effect for a classical system, namely a complex scalar field. We use this example to demonstrate that the Aharonov-Bohm effect in principle has nothing to do with quantum-mechanics. We then discuss how this classical field description can be connected to the standard one particle quantum description of the Aharonov-Bohm effect.