Aharonov-Bohm scattering of wave packets by Maxwell coils.

Abstract

Maxwell coils are solenoids of spheroidal shape which produce a constant magnetic field inside the coil; at large distances the field of a Maxwell coil becomes that of a magnetic dipole. The current in systems consisting of several confocal Maxwell coils can be adjusted in such a way that the magnetic field inside the smallest coil is constant and the back flux is confined to the interior of the largest coil. Quantum-mechanical scattering of charged particles by Maxwell coils, or systems thereof, is first formulated as a three-dimensional problem and then treated within a two-dimensional approximation. The evolution in time of wave packets, which are Gaussian wave packets in the beginning, is calculated numerically. In all cases an Aharonov-Bohm effect is observed in the angular distribution of the scattered wave packets. The back flux results only in an additional deflection of the packets, which corresponds to the classical deflection caused by the Lorentz force.