Deflating the Aharonov-Bohm Effect
Quantum Physics
2014-07-21 v1
Abstract
I argue that the metaphysical import of the Aharonov-Bohm effect has been overstated: correctly understood, it does not require either rejection of gauge invariance or any novel form of nonlocality. The conclusion that it does require one or the other follows from a failure to keep track, in the analysis, of the complex scalar field to which the magnetic vector potential is coupled. Once this is recognised, the way is clear to a local account of the ontology of electrodynamics (or at least, to an account no more nonlocal than quantum theory in general requires); I sketch a possible such account.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1407.5073,
title = {Deflating the Aharonov-Bohm Effect},
author = {David Wallace},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.5073},
year = {2014}
}