Aharonov-Bohm Problem for Spin-One

Abstract

The basic AB problem is to determine how an unshielded tube of magnetic flux $Φ$ affects arbitrarily long-wavelength charged particles impinging on it. For spin-1 at almost all $Φ$ the particles do not penetrate the tube, so the interaction essentially is periodic in $Φ$ (AB effect). Below-threshold bound states move freely only along the tube axis, and consequent induced vacuum currents supplement rather than screen $Φ$. For a pure magnetic interaction the tube must be broader than the particle Compton wavelength, i.e., only the nonrelativistic spin-1 AB problem exists.