Behavior of charged particle motion in a magnetic field and a retarding potential II - observations of the existence of "forbidden states" and Aharanov-Bohm analog in classical mechanical domain

Abstract

The observations made earlier¹ on the existence of discrete 'forbidden' (and allowed) states in a classical mechanical system of charged particle motion in a magnetic field are extended to include the region where the applied retarding potential exceeds the potential equivalent of the electron energy. The electron current flowing to the ground from the anode of the electron gun is found to exhibit strong dips as the potential on the grid of the detector system kept at a distance along the magnetic field, is swept from a large negative value to zero. The observed anode current 'dips' are quite enigmatic since the electrons under the conditions (grid potential far exceeding the cathode potential) are unable to reach the grid, yet they respond to the grid potential changes in quite an unexpected manner. This observation is thus reminiscent of the Aharanov-Bohm effect in quantum mechanics. The dips are moreover found to fit a relation, a modified form of that given in the earlier reported results.