Loopholes in the interpretation of experiments on the Aharonov-Bohm effect

Abstract

The independence of the Aharonov-Bohm phase shift on particle velocity is one of its defining properties. The classical counterpart to this dispersionless behavior is the absence of forces along the direction of motion of the particle. A reevaluation of the experimental demonstration that forces are absent in the AB physical system is given, including previously unpublished data. It is shown that the debate on the presence or absence of forces is not settled, and an experiment searching for dispersionless forces is proposed.