Quantum phases for moving charges and dipoles in an electromagnetic field and fundamental equations of quantum mechanics

Abstract

We analyze the quantum phase effects for point-like charges and electric (magnetic) dipoles under a natural assumption that the observed phase for a dipole represents the sum of corresponding phases for charges composing this dipole. This way we disclose two novel quantum phases for charged particles, which we named as complementary electric Aharonov-Bohm (A-B) phase and complementary magnetic A-B phase, respectively. We reveal that these phases are derived from the Schrödinger equation only in the case, where the operator of momentum is re-defined via the replacement of the canonical momentum of particle by the sum of its mechanical momentum and interactional field momentum for a system of charged particles. The related alteration should be introduced to Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations, too, and implications of this modification are discussed.