Aharonov-Bohm effect in noncommutative spaces

The Aharonov-Bohm effect on the noncommutative plane is considered. Developing the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, we find the propagation amplitude for a particle in a noncommutative space. We show that the corresponding shift in the phase of the particle propagator due to the magnetic field of a thin solenoid receives certain gauge invariant corrections because of the noncommutativity. Evaluating the numerical value for this correction, an upper bound for the noncommutativity parameter is obtained. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.