50 years of the Aharonov-Bohm Effect: Concepts and Applications

More info:  external link
Location:  Tel Aviv

The meeting will mark 50 years of the Aharonov-Bohm Effect – a scientific achievement that has changed our perception of the foundation of physics, and has crucially influenced the evelopment of various branches of physics.

In 1959, Yakir Aharonov and the late David Bohm discovered a quantum effect which revolutionized our understanding of the role of potentials in physics. For the first time, it was shown that a particle moving in a field-free region could be affected by a field in a disjoint region. Such an effect is alien to classical physics; indeed, it is a defining property of the quantum world.

Numerous experiments have verified the effect, and recent novel techniques allow precise measurements of the shifts in electron interference patterns that demonstrate the phase (the AB phase) picked up by a charged particle moving around a solenoid.

The AB phase is ubiquitous in modern physics — including cosmology, particle physics, non-abelian gauge theories, condensed matter chemical and molecular physics, and laser dynamics. Generalizations of the AB phase to non-abelian gauge theories, such as the Wilson and t’Hooft loops, are important tools for studying the issues of confinement and spontaneous symmetry breaking. The topological quantum phase explains charge quantization, the quantum Hall effect, the Josephson junction and many effects in the new field of mesoscopic physics where tiny electronic circuits exhibit quantum behavior. The AB phase plays a crucial role in electron microscope holography.

The AB effect appears in textbooks and encyclopedias but it is still a topic of current research in numerous fields of physics. The major part of the activity related to the AB effect today is in the field of mesoscopic physics. So this will be one of the main themes of the conference. But we will cover, at least in part, the other aspects as well, especially those that have had significant progress recently such as experiments on the scalar Aharonov-Bohm effect.

Subjects to be covered

Aharonov-Bohm Effect in:
Gauge Theories
Scalar form
Mesoscopic Systems
Quantum Hall Effect
Quantum Dots
Carbon Nanotubes
High-TC Superconductivity
Aharonov-Casher Effect
Quantum Geometrical Phases
Nonlocal Aspects of the Aharonov-Bohm effect

The Advisory committee
Jacob Bekenstein
Michael Berry
Moty Heiblum
Anthony Leggett
Akira Tonomura
Frank Wilczek
Joshua Yortner

The Program committee
Yshai Avishai
Joseph Avron
Aharon Casher
Yuval Gefen
Shmuel Nussinov (Chairman)
Benni Reznik

The Organizing committee
Eshel Ben Jacob
Guy Deutscher
Yaron Oz
Lev Vaidman (Chairman)

A preliminary list of speakers includes:
Yakir Aharonov
Boris Altshuler
Yshai Avishai*
Michael Berry
Markus Buttiker
Georgi Dvali
Francois Englert
Klaus Ensslin
Yuval Gefen
David Gross*
Moty Heiblum
Yoseph Imry
Tirzah Kaufherr
Klaus von Klitzing*
Charles Marcus
Yoichiro Nambu*
Sandu Popescu
Benni Reznik
Moti Segev
Ady Stern
David Thouless
Akira Tonomura
Chang C Tsuei
Lev Vaidman
Chen Ning Yang
*to be confirmed

Apart from invited lectures, the Program Committee will select the oral and poster presentations from amongst the abstract submissions, ensuring opportunities for young scientists. The conference is open for submission of abstracts. Currently, the deadline for submission of abstracts (limited to one page, Word or PDF file) is 1 June 2009. Pre-registration is also open. It will ensure that you will not be turned down from participation in the conference due to the limit on the number of participants.
For pre-registration and submitting the abstract please go to the website of
the meeting www.tau.ac.il/~ab50

Please, download, print and post the poster of the conference www.tau.ac.il/~ab50/images/Poster_full.pdf

Lev Vaidman