Remarks on Aharanov-Bohm effect and geometric phase

Abstract

Recently the physical mechanism for geometric phase in optics has been elucidated in terms of the angular momentum holonomy proposed in 1992. Aharonov and Kaufherr (PRL, 92, 070404, 2004) revisit the Aharonov-Bohm effect, and propose non-local exchange of a conserved, gauge invariant quantity that changes the modular momentum of the particle that is responsible for the AB phase shift. We suggest that the net angular momentum shifts proposed for GP may be analogous to the shift in the modulus momentum for the AB effect. At a single photon or electron level such non-trivial, geometric effects seem to hint at a new physics.