---
title: "Modular variables"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "concept"
status: "watching"
canonical_name: "modular variables"
aliases: ["modular momentum"]
first_seen: "2026-10-23T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["Yakir Aharonov","Aage Petersen"]
seek_code_commit: "d40ee39"
---


A quantum-mechanical concept in [[entity-yakir-aharonov|Yakir Aharonov]]'s research program, associated with periodic ("modular") components of position and momentum. Per Aharonov's own 2026 oral-history account, he and [[entity-aage-petersen|Aage Petersen]] were "working on" modular variables at Brandeis in the mid-1960s, during the same period the two separately began working out the idea behind [[claim-aharonov-quantum-frames-of-reference-work-predated-1973-1984-publication-by-decade|quantum frames of reference]]; the pair reportedly also developed "modular momentum" together with Hugh Pendleton later at Yeshiva University, a collaboration the source interview does not fully disambiguate in time or place from the Brandeis-era work.

Status: watching — not yet detailed in a claim-note of its own. This stub exists to anchor the date the vault first encountered the term, since that date cannot be recovered later if left unstamped.