Solid State Analog for He - McKellar - Wilkens Quantum Phase

– In this letter we investigate the quantum dynamics of a quasiparticle in the presence of a charged screw dislocation submitted to a uniform magnetic field. Analysing the quantum scattering for this quasiparticle we observed the appearance of a topological quantum phase in the solution and demonstrate that this phenomenon is the solid state analog of the He-McKeller-Wilkens effect. Aharonov and Bohm(AB) [1] have demonstrated that a quantum charge circulating around a magnetic flux tube acquires a quantum topological phase. This effect has been found experimentally by Shambers [2, 3]. Aharonov and Casher [4] showed that a particle with a magnetic moment moving in a electric field accumulates a quantum phase, the Aharonov-Casher(AC) phase. This phenomenon has been observed with a neutron interferometer [5] and in a neutral atomic Ramsey interferometer [6]. He and Mckellar [7], and Wilkens [8] independently, have predicted the existence of a quantum phase that a electric dipole acquires, while circulating around, and parallel to, a line of magnetic monopoles. This phase has been denominated in the literature the He-Mckellar-Wilkens(HMW) phase. It is the Maxwell dual of the AC phase. A practical experimental configuration to test the HMW phase was proposed by Wei, Han and Wei [9]. In their proposal the electric field of a charged wire polarizes a neutral atom and a uniform magnetic field is applied parallel to the wire. In this field configuration, the neutral atom acquire a HMW phase. In a recent article Anandan [10] has presented a