Quantum phase effects for electrically charged particles: converging descriptions via fields and potentials

Abstract

We analyze the physical meaning of quantum phase effects from a new perspective, related to our recent disclosure of two novel quantum phases for electric/magnetic dipoles – in addition to the pre- viously known Aharonov-Casher and He-McKellar-Wilkens phases, and two novel quantum phases for point-like charged particles – in addition to the electric and magnetic Aharonov-Bohm phases. We show that the obtained complete expression for the quantum phase of a moving charge in an EM field allows to establish its direct link with the interactional electromagnetic momentum in the system “particle and ex- ternal field” and to better understand the physical meaning of quantum phase effects, which is discussed using a number of particular examples