Aharonov-Bohm effect’s analogue in water waves

Rather indirectly through Claude (a not-so-short story there) I learned of a paper by Michael Berry and collaborators titled “Wavefront dislocations in the Aharonov-Bohm effect and its water wave analogue” (a copy can be found on Berry’s website at number 96). It is among the most pleasurable papers I have read in physics to date.

To understand why this Chandrasekhar-esque paper tickles me so, I need to explain a little bit of the physics.

The Aharonov-Bohm effect
The Aharonov-Bohm effect is one of the classic illustrations of the difference between classical and quantum mechanics. More importantly though, it also demonstrated that the use of the vector magnetic potential is not a mere computational convenience, but that the potential also manifests itself in physical effects.