Topological effects in quantum mechanics
- Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Israel)
We completed our analysis of experiments, some completed, some planned, and some only conceptual at present, that purport to demonstrate new kinds of non-local and topological effects in the interaction of a neutron with an external electromagnetic field. In the Aharonov-Casher effect (AC), the neutron interacts with an electric field and in the Scalar Aharonov-Bohm effect (SAB) the neutron interacts with a magnetic field. In both cases, the geometry can be arranged so that there is no force on the neutron but an interference experiment nevertheless finds a phase shift proportional to the applied field and to the neutron`s magnetic moment. Previously, we showed that the accepted interpretation of these phenomena as topological effects due to a non-local interaction between the neutron and the electromagnetic field is incorrect. Both AC and SAB follow from local torques on the neutron whose expectation values vanish at every instant but which have non-vanishing effect on the measurable spin-correlation variables S(t) = (1/2) [{sigma}{sub x}{sigma}{sub x}(t) + {sigma}{sub y}(0){sigma}{sub y}(t) + h.c.] and V(t) = [{sigma}{sub x}(0){sigma}{sub y}(t) - {sigma}{sub y}(0){sigma}{sub x}(t) + h.c.]. We have now completed this work by observing that a criterion often used for identifying a topological effect, energy independence of the phase shift between two arms of an interferometer, is only a necessary condition, and by describing a phase shifter which obeys the energy-independence condition but whose interaction with the neutron is neither topological nor even non-local.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 166454
- Report Number(s):
- ANL-95/14; ON: DE96000985; TRN: 95:007970-0170
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Aug 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Physics Division Annual Report, April 1, 1994--March 31, 1995; Henning, W.F.; PB: 207 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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