Herman Batelaan & Adam Caprez 

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Behlen Laboratory,
Lincoln NE 68588-0111 USA

"Testing the dispersionless nature and macroscopic 
limit of the Aharonov-Bohm effect."

Abstract:

     When a solenoid is placed between the two arms of
an electron interferometer a phase shift is observed
that is proportional to the current through the
solenoid.  The generally accepted idea is that no
classical forces play a role.  The reason is that the
magnetic field is present only within the solenoid,
while outside the solenoid only the vector potential
is non-zero.  This makes the famous Aharonov-Bohm
(AB)-effect a purely quantum mechanical effect. 

     For this fundamental and important phenomena it
is surprising that the experimental tests have not
been completed. Several important experiments have
demonstrated the presence of the phaseshift and
measured its magnitude. Excellent agreement with
theory has been found. Consequently, most textbooks
treat this topic as fully established. However,
perhaps the most crucial feature of the AB-effect; its
dispersionless nature, has not yet been tested.  We
discuss our approach to test the dispersionless nature
of the AB-effect.

     Additionally, the absence of a classical force,
such as proposed by Boyer, has also never been tested.
We will discuss our preliminary experiment that is
designed to detect the presence or absence of a time
delay due to such a force. This is a test for the
classical, macroscopic version of the Aharonov-Bohm
effect.