Ontological clarity via canonical presentation: Electromagnetism and the Aharonov-Bohm effect

Abstract

Quantum physics demands some radical revision of our fundamental beliefs about physical reality. We know that because there are certain verified physical phenomena-two-slit interference, the disappearance of interference upon monitoring, violations of Bell's inequality-that have no classical analogs. But the exact nature of that revision has been under dispute since the foundation of quantum theory. I offer a method of clarifying what the commitments of a clearly formulated physical theory are, and apply it to a discussion of some options available to account for another non-classical phenomenon: the Aharonov-Bohm effect.