Sayipjamal Dulat, Kai Ma
Abstract
We reexamine the topological and nonlocal natures of the Aharonov-Casher and scalar Aharonov-Bohm phase effects. The underlying U(1) gauge structure is exhibited explicitly. And the conditions for developing topological Aharonov-Casher and scalar Aharonov-Bohm phases are clarified. We analyse the arguments of M. Peshkin and H. J. Lipkin (Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 2847(1995)) in detail and show that they are based on the wrong Hamiltonian which yields their conclusion incorrect.