Off-Diagonal Long-Range Order, Restricted Gauge Transformations, and Aharonov-Bohm Effect in Conductors

Abstract

The Hamiltonian describing a conductor surrounding an external magnetic field contains a nonvanishing vector potential in the volume accessible to the electrons and nuclei of which the conductor is made. That vector potential cannot be removed by a gauge transformation. Nevertheless, a macroscopic normal conductor can experience no Aharonov-Bohm effect. That is proved by assuming only that a normal conductor lacks off-diagonal long-range order (ODLRO). Then by restricting the Hilbert space to density matrices which lack ODLRO, it is possible to introduce a restricted gauge transformation that removes the interaction of the conductor with the vector potential.

arXiv commentEditing errors are corrected. One was slightly misleading

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