0 electrodynamics Aharonov-Bohm effect

The group space of 0(3) is doubly connected (i.e., non-simply connected) and can therefore support an Aharonov-Bohm effect (Section V), which is described by a physical inhomogeneous term produced by a rotation in the internal gauge space of 0(3) [24]. The existence of the Aharonov-Bohm effect is therefore clear evidence for an extended electrodynamics such as 0(3) electrodynamics, as argued already. A great deal more evidence is reviewed in this article in favor of 0(3) over U(l). For example, it is shown that the Sagnac effect [25] can be described accurately with 0(3), while U(l) fails completely to describe it. 

Therefore, this is a statement of our fundamental hypothesis, specifically, that the topology of the vacuum defines the field equations through group and gauge field theory. Prior to the inference and empirical verification of the Aharonov-Bohm effect, there was no such concept in classical electrodynamics, the ether having been denied by Lorentz, Poincare, Einstein, and others. Our development of 0(3) electrodynamics in this chapter, therefore, has a well-defined basis in fundamental topology and empirical data. In the course of the development of... 

It is useful to go through this derivation in detail because it produces the inhomogeneous term responsible for the Aharonov-Bohm effect in 0(3) electrodynamics. The effect of the rotation may be written as... 

The Aharonov-Bohm effect is self-inconsistent in U(l) electrodynamics because [44] the effect depends on the interaction of a vector potential A with an electron, but the magnetic field defined by = V x A is zero at the point of interaction [44]. This argument can always be used in U(l) electrodynamics to counter the view that the classical potential A is physical, and adherents of the received view can always assert in U(l) electrodynamics that the potential must be unphysical by gauge freedom. If, however, the Aharonov-Bohm effect is seen as an effect of 0(3) electrodynamics, or of SU(2) electrodynamics [44], it is easily demonstrated that the effect is due to the physical inhomogeneous term appearing in Eq. (25). This argument is developed further in Section VI. 

The 0(3) Proca equation (856) does not have this artificial constraint on the potentials, which are regarded as physical in this chapter. This overall conclusion is self-consistent with the inference by Barrett [104] that the Aharonov-Bohm effect is self-consistent only in 0(3) electrodynamics, where the potentials are, accordingly, physical. 

The Aharonov-Bohm effect requires topological consideration [1], (i.e., a structured vacuum), and there exist conservation laws of topological origin, the simplest one is given by the sine-Gordon equation, which also appears in the discussion of 0(3) electrodynamics by Evans and Crowell [5]. 

VIII. Empirical Testing of 0(3) Electrodynamics Interferometry and the Aharonov-Bohm Effect... 

VIII. EMPIRICAL TESTING OF 0(3) ELECTRODYNAMICS INTERFEROMETRY AND THE AHARONOV-BOHM EFFECT... 

Therefore, the distinction between the topological and dynamical phase has vanished, and the realization has been reached that the phase in optics and electrodynamics is a line integral, related to an area integral over Bt3> by a non-Abelian Stokes theorem, Eq. (553), applied with 0(3) symmetry-covariant derivatives. It is essential to understand that a non-Abelian Stokes theorem must be applied, as in Eq. (553), and not the ordinary Stokes theorem. We have also argued, earlier, how the non-Abelian Stokes explains the Aharonov-Bohm effect without difficulty. 

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