Abstract
Although the Aharonov-Bohm and related effects are familiar in solid-state and high-energy physics, the nonlocality of these effects has been questioned. Here we show that the Aharonov-Bohm effect has two very different aspects. One aspect is instantaneous and nonlocal; the other aspect, which depends on entanglement, unfolds continuously over time. While local, gauge-invariant variables may occasionally suffice for explaining the continuous aspect, we argue that they cannot explain the instantaneous aspect. Thus the Aharonov-Bohm effect is, in general, nonlocal.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 042110 |
| Journal | Physical Review A |
| Volume | 93 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 14 Apr 2016 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank M. Berry for helpful comments. Y.A. and E.C. thank the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 1311/14) for support, and Y.A. acknowledges support also from the ICORE Excellence Center “Circle of Lightâ and the German-Israeli Project Cooperation (DIP). E.C. acknowledges support from ERC AdG NLST. D.R. thanks the John Templeton Foundation (Project ID 43297) and the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 1190/13) for support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Physical Society.