Quantum phases for point-like charged particles and for electrically neutral dipoles in an electromagnetic field

Abstract

We point out that the known quantum phases for an electric/magnetic dipole moving in an electromagnetic (EM) field must be presented as the superposition of more fundamental quantum phases emerging for elementary charges. Using this idea, we find two new fundamental quantum phases for point-like charges, next to the known electric and magnetic Aharonov-Bohm (A-B) phases, named by us as the complementary electric and magnetic phases, correspondingly. We further demonstrate that these new phases can indeed be derived via the Schrodinger equation for a particle in an EM field, where however the operator of momentum is redefined via the replacement of the canonical momentum of particle by the sum of its mechanical momentum and interactional field momentum for a system "charged particle and a macroscopic source of EM field". The implications of the obtained results are discussed. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.