New results on the Aharonov-Bohm effect with electron interferometry

Abstract

The Aharonov-Bohm effect (AB effect) involves fundamental problems in quantum mechanics such as the reality of vector potentials, the locality of physical effects, and the single-valuedness of the wave function in multiply connected spaces. Therefore various kinds of discussions have continuously been made for these 30 years. In this controversy, some people even negated the existence of the AB effect, attributing the experimental results previously performed to the Lorentz force effect due to the overlap between the electron and the magnetic field. In order to settle this situation, new experiments were carried out and the controversy entered a new phase.