Indistinguishability of quantum states and rotation counting

Abstract

We propose a quantum system in which the winding number of rotations of a particle around a ring can be monitored and emerges as a physical observable. We explicitly analyze the situation when, as a result of the monitoring of the winding number, the period of the orbital motion of the particle is extended to $n>1$ full rotations, which leads to changes in the energy spectrum and in all observable properties. In particular, we show that in this case, the usual magnetic flux period ${\Phi }_0=h/q$ of the Aharonov-Bohm effect is reduced to ${\Phi }_0/n$.

5 pages, 3 embedded figures

References in corpus (5)

• Wigner crystal physics in quantum wires
• Quantum Superinductor with Tunable Non-Linearity
• Aharonov-Bohm effect in the tunnelling of a quantum rotor in a linear Paul trap
• Coulomb blockade of anyons
• Quantum Indistinguishability in Chemical Reactions

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Temperature-dependent periodicity of the persistent current in strongly interacting systems
• Quantum rotator and Josephson junction: compact vs. extended phase and dissipative quantum phase transition
• Quantum gears from planar rotors
• On "Consistent Quantization of Nearly Singular Superconducting Circuits"