Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Semiclassical Explanation of the Matteucci–Pozzi and Aharonov–Bohm Phase Shifts

  • Published:
Foundations of Physics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Classical electromagnetic forces can account for the experimentally observed phase shifts seen in an electron interference pattern when a line of electric dipoles or a line of magnetic dipoles (a solenoid) is placed between the electron beams forming the interference pattern.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  1. G. Matteucci and G. Pozzi, “New diffraction experiment on the electrostatic Aharonov-Bohm effect,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 2469–2470 (1985).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Y. Aharonov and D. Bohm, “Significance of electromagnetic potentials in quantum theory,” Phys. Rev. 115, 485–491 (1959).

    Google Scholar 

  3. R. G. Chambers, “Shift of an electron interference pattern by enclosed magnetic flux,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 5, 3–5 (1960) or G. Mollenstedt and W. Bayh, “Messung der kontinuierlichen Phasenschiebung von Elektronenwellen in kraftfeldfreien Raum durch das magnetische Vektorpotential einer Luftspule,” Naturwiss. 49, 81-82 (1962). See also the reviews by S. Olariu and I. I. Popescu, “The quantum effects of electromagnetic fluxes,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 57, 339-436 (1985), and by M. Peshkin and A. Tonomura, The Aharonov-Bohm effect (Lecture Notes in Physics, Vol. 340) (Springer, New York, 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  4. See, for example, D. J. Griffiths, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1995), pp. 343–349.

    Google Scholar 

  5. See, for example, D. J. Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics (Prentic Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1999), 3rd edn., p. 165.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Boyer, “The Aharonov-Bohm effect as a classical electromagnetic-lag effect: An electrostatic analogue and possible experimental test,” Nuovo Cimento 100B, 685–701 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  7. See the reviews by Olariu and Popescu and by Tonomura mentioned in Ref. 3. The present author's views were expressed thirty years ago in T. H. Boyer, “Classical electromagnetic deflections and lag effects associated with quantum interference pattern shifts: considerations related to the Aharonov-Bohm effect,” Phys. Rev. D 8, 1679–1693 (1973). More recent aspects are given by T. H. Boyer, “Does the Aharonov-Bohm effect exist?'', Found. Phys. 30, 893-905 (2000); “Classical electromagnetism and the Aharonov-Bohm phase shift,” Found. Phys. 30, 907-932 (2000).

    Google Scholar 

  8. See, for example, B. Lischke, “Direckte Beobachtung einzelner magnetischer Fluss quanten in supraleitenden Hohlzylindern. III,” Z. Physik 239, 360–378 (1970). Actually, although a superconductor expells the magnetic field lines of a time-independent magnetic field in the Meissner effect, a superconductor acts similarly to a normal metal for high frequency fields. The erroneous point of view regarding the screening role of conducting materials appears on p. 426 of the review by Olariu and Popescu listed in Ref. 3 and on p. 123 of the review by Tonomura.

    Google Scholar 

  9. T. H. Boyer, “Penetration of the electric and magnetic velocity fields of a nonrelativisticpoint charge into a conducting plane,” Phys. Rev. A 36, 68–82 (1974). W. H. Furry, “Shielding of the magnetic field of a slowly moving point charge by a conducting surface,” Am. J. Phys. 42, 649-667 (1974). D. S. Jones, “The penetration into conductorsof magnetic fields from moving charges,” J. Phys. A 8, 742-750 (1975). T. H. Boyer, “Penetration of electromagnetic velocity fields through a conducting wall of finite thickness, ” Phys. Rev. E 53, 6450-6459 (1996). W. L. Schaich, “Electromagnetic velocity fields near a conducting slab,” Phys. Rev. E 64, 046605 (2001); “Surface response of a conductor: static and dynamic, electric and magnetic,” Am. J. Phys. 69, 1267-1276 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  10. T. H. Boyer, “Understanding the penetration of electromagnetic velocity fields into conductors,” Am. J. Phys. 67, 954–958 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  11. T. H. Boyer, “Does the Aharonov-Bohm effect exist?” Found. Phys. 30, 893–905 (2000).

    Google Scholar 

  12. T. H. Boyer, “Interaction of a point charge and a magnetic moment: Considerations related to the Aharonov-Bohm phase shift,” Found. Phys. 32, 1 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, City College of the City University of New York, New York, New York, 10031

    Timothy H. Boyer

Authors
  1. Timothy H. Boyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Boyer, T.H. Semiclassical Explanation of the Matteucci–Pozzi and Aharonov–Bohm Phase Shifts. Foundations of Physics 32, 41–49 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013896713708

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013896713708

Keywords

Search

Navigation