Minimum uncertainty states in angular momentum and angle variables for charged particles in structured electromagnetic fields

We study the phase-space properties of a charged particle in a static electromagnetic field exhibiting vortex pairs with complementary topological charges and in a pure gauge field. A stationary solution of the Schrodinger equation that minimizes the uncertainty relations for angular momentum and trigonometric functions of the phase is obtained. It does not exhibit vortices and the angular momentum is due to the gauge field only. Increasing the topological charge of the vortices increases the regions where the Wigner function in the angle-angular momentum plane takes negative values, and thus enhances the quantum character of the dynamics. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.