S A R Horsley

Röntgen quantum phase shift: a semiclassical local electrodynamical effect?

The Röntgen quantum phase shift is exhibited by the interference of point particles endowed with an electric dipole moment due to their motion relative to a source of the magnetic field. Here we show, using arguments involving the classical concepts of force and its impulse, that the Röntgen phase shift arises within a largely classical (semiclassical) theoretical framework. All the subtleties normally associated with the nonlocality of magnetic (Aharonov-Bohm-type) quantum phase phenomena are uncontroversially absent in the classical treatment.