Design of a test for the electromagnetic coupling of non-local wavefunctions

It has recently been proven that certain effective wavefunctions in fractional quantum mechanics and condensed matter do not have a locally conserved current; as a consequence, their coupling to the electromagnetic field leads to extended Maxwell equations, featuring non-local, formally simple additional source terms. Solving these equations in general form or finding analytical approximations is a formidable task, but numerical solutions can be obtained by performing some bulky double-retarded integrals. We focus on concrete experimental situations which may allow to detect an anomalous quasi-static magnetic field generated by these (collective) wavefunctions in cuprate superconductors. We compute the spatial dependence of the field and its amplitude as a function of microscopic parameters including the fraction $\eta$ of supercurrent that is not locally conserved in Josephson junctions between grains, the thickness $a$ of the junctions and the size $\varepsilon$ of their current sinks and sources. The results show that the anomalous field is actually detectable at the macroscopic level with sensitive experiments, and can be important at the microscopic level because of virtual charge effects typical of the extended Maxwell equations.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures - Final journal versio

Oscillating dipole with fractional quantum source in Aharonov-Bohm electrodynamics

We show, in the case of a special dipolar source, that electromagnetic fields in fractional quantum mechanics have an unexpected space dependence: propagating fields may have non-transverse components, and the distinction between near-field zone and wave zone is blurred. We employ an extension of Maxwell theory, Aharonov-Bohm electrodynamics, which is compatible with currents $j^\nu$ conserved globally but not locally, we have derived in another work the field equation $\partial_\mu F^{\mu \nu}=j^\nu+i^\nu$, where $i^\nu$ is a non-local function of $j^\nu$, called "secondary current". Y.\ Wei has recently proved that the probability current in fractional quantum mechanics is in general not locally conserved. We compute this current for a Gaussian wave packet with fractional parameter $a=3/2$ and find that in a suitable limit it can be approximated by our simplified dipolar source. Currents which are not locally conserved may be present also in other quantum systems whose wave functions satisfy non-local equations. The combined electromagnetic effects of such sources and their secondary currents are very interesting both theoretically and for potential applications.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figure

Tunneling of a Massless Field through a 3D Gaussian Barrier

We propose a method for the approximate computation of the Green function of a scalar massless field Phi subjected to potential barriers of given size and shape in spacetime. This technique is applied to the case of a 3D gaussian ellipsoid-like barrier, placed on the axis between two pointlike sources of the field. Instead of the Green function we compute its temporal integral, that gives the static potential energy of the interaction of the two sources. Such interaction takes place in part by tunneling of the quanta of Phi across the barrier. We evaluate numerically the correction to the potential in dependence on the size of the barrier and on the barrier-sources distance.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, 3 PostScript figures; improved presentation, to appear in J. Math. Phy

High-frequency electromagnetic emission from non-local wavefunctions

In systems with non-local potentials or other kinds of non-locality, the Landauer-B\"uttiker formula of quantum transport leads to replace the usual gauge-invariant current density $\textbf{J}$ with a current $\textbf{J}^{ext}$ which has a non-local part and coincides with the current of the extended Aharonov-Bohm electrodynamics. It follows that the electromagnetic field generated by this current can have some peculiar properties, and in particular the electric field of an oscillating dipole can have a long-range longitudinal component. The calculation is complex because it requires the evaluation of double-retarded integrals. We report the outcome of some numerical integrations with specific parameters for the source: dipole length $\sim 10^{-7}$ cm, frequency 10 GHz. The resulting longitudinal field $E_L$ turns out to be of the order of $10^2$ to $10^3$ times larger than the transverse component (only for the non-local part of the current). Possible applications concern the radiation field generated by Josephson tunnelling in thick SNS junctions in YBCO and by current flow in molecular nano-devices.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figur