I'm not sure whether I understand your question right, but there's
nothing which forbids any value of the magnetic flux through a loop
around some magnetic field. The phase shift important for the Aharonov
Bohm effect is gauge invariant since it is proportional to the magnetic
flux which is a gauge invariant quantity.
The difference for superconductors is the following. Suppose you have a
superconducting ring in a magnetic field. From the Schrödinger equation
for a particle in an magnetic field, the phase change along an
arbitrary closed loop, C, is given by
\hbar c/Q Delta phi=\int_C d \vec{r}[\vec{A}(\vec{r)+ m c/Q^2
\vec{j}_{el}(\vec{r})/|\psi(\vec{r})|^2],
where \psi is the wave function of the particle with mass, m, and
electric charge, Q. \vec{A} is the vector potential describing the
external magnetic field.
According to Stoke's Law the first term on the rhs of this equation is
the magnetic flux.
Since the wave function has to be uniquely defined, this phase shift
must be an integer multiple of 4 pi.
There's no restriction for the magnetic flux, if you put your path
through normal-conducting material since there the electric current can
have an arbitrary value.
However, if you have superconducting material, the electric current has
to vanish strictly inside this material, and thus putting your
integration path along the superconducting ring in the above mentioned
situation, you have
\hbar c/Q \Delta phi=\Phi=\hbar c/Q n = n \Phi_0,
where n \in Z, i.e., the magnetic flux, Phi, through the superconducting
ring must be an integer multiple of the London-Flux Quantum,
Phi_0=\hbar c/Q
The experimental value is Q=-2 e, showing that the super current is
indeed carried by two electron charges as predicted by the BCS theory
for supercondtivity.
It is clear what happens when you cool down the conducting ring below
the critical temperature: Before the cooling, the material is
superconducting, and the magnetic flux can take any value. Cooling down
the ring, surface currents are induced such that an additional magnetic
field is created which together with the external field makes a flux,
which must be an integer multiple of \Phi_0.
Jarek Duda wrote:
> While considering superconductors, it is generally accepted that there
> are created fluxons - some natural number of quantas of magnetic flux.
> I wanted to ask if the situation isn't more general - is magnetic flux
> quantified also in vacuum?
> It is suggested by Aharonov-Bohm effect as in superconductors - that
> the change of quantum phase is proportional to integral of
> electromagnetic potential along this path and when we make a loop this
> way, the phase has to make some integer number of rotations - this
> number looks to be the number of flux quantas going through this loop.
> If it's true, for example lines in nice animation on
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_reconnection > could be really physical.
> If we would give them energy density per length, it would be intuitive
> that while these reconnections are released bursts of energy (they are
> quickly shorten).
> Another argument that they should be quantified is that while we would
> track along such magnetic line, we should finally get to a single
> particles (fermions).
> Treating them seriously could for example explain fermion pairing
> (like Cooper pairs, electrons in orbitals) or atomic selection rules:
>
http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.2724 > What do you think about it?
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