Abstract:
Dr. Akira Tonomura passed away on May 2, 2012, at the age of 70. As a classmate at University of Tokyo, I would like to talk about some episodes and his major achievements in physics in the first half of my talk. In the latter half of my talk, I would like to discuss a unified formulation of geometric phases which are related to the double-slit experiment. In particular, I emphasize the fact that the topology of geometric phases is well-defined only in the adiabatic limit and it is generally trivial. I then comment on the Aharonov-Bohm effect, to which Tonomura made major contributions. The topology of the Aharonov-Bohm effect is exact and thus quite different from the topology of geometric phases. If time permits, I would like to mention other topological phases such as quantum anomalies.
Introduction to Speaker:
Prof. Kazuo Fujikawa received his PhD degree from Princeton University in 1970. Starting in 1983, he became professor in physics at Research Institute for Theoretical Physics, Hiroshima University, and then at Yukawa Institute, Kyoto University, and at Physics Department of University of Tokyo, and finally at Institute of Quantum Science, Nihon University from which retired in 2012. Currently, he serves as the visiting scientist at RIKEN in Japan.