Aharonov-Bohm effect
A 1959 prediction by Yakir Aharonov and David Bohm that a charged particle's quantum phase is measurably affected by an electromagnetic potential even in regions where the electric and magnetic fields themselves are zero — showing that the vector potential has direct physical significance in quantum mechanics, not merely mathematical convenience. In the vault it is named repeatedly as the touchstone of Aharonov's career and as "dynamical" nonlocality, which Aharonov rates as more fundamental than Bell-type "kinematical" entanglement; the effect's own discovery history is the subject of a companion 2025 oral-history interview (Aharonov & Hetzroni, EPJ H 50(1):16) not yet captured in this vault.
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