Aharonov-Bohm effect for light in a moving medium

In this paper we propose a way to detect the Aharonov-Bohm effect for light in a moving medium. We use the position-dependent photon wave function to describe the propagation of the photon in order to evaluate the phase shift acquired by the photon while it passes around a rotating cylinder embedded in a viscous fluid. We show that this phase depends on the speed of the fluid as well as the electromagnetic properties of the cylinder.

Figure 1

A cylinder of radius $R$, rotating about an axis with angular velocity $\Omega$ immersed in a viscous fluid. The field of velocity in the fluid is represented by blue circles.

Figure 2

A pictorial representation of a beam of photons $\gamma$ in a closed path of radius $b$ around the rotating cylinder.