https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-015-3670-8
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Aharonov–Bohm phase for an electromagnetic wave background
1
Department of Physics, California State University Fresno, Fresno, CA, 93740-8031, USA
2
ICTP South American Institute for Fundamental Research, UNESP-Univ. Estadual Paulista, São Paulo, SP, 01140-070, Brazil
3
Department of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904-4714, USA
4
Hue University College of Education, Hue, Vietnam
* e-mail: dougs@csufresno.edu
Received:
22
July
2015
Accepted:
4
September
2015
Published online:
24
September
2015
The canonical Aharonov–Bohm effect is usually studied with time-independent potentials. In this work, we investigate the Aharonov–Bohm phase acquired by a charged particle moving in time-dependent potentials. In particular, we focus on the case of a charged particle moving in the time-varying field of a plane electromagnetic wave. We work out the Aharonov–Bohm phase using both the potential (i.e. 
) and the field (i.e. 
) forms of the Aharonov–Bohm phase. We give conditions in terms of the parameters of the system (frequency of the electromagnetic wave, the size of the space–time loop, amplitude of the electromagnetic wave) under which the time-varying Aharonov–Bohm effect could be observed.
© SIF and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2015
