We show that for a particular choice of gauge the vector potential of any nonradiating source is spatially localized along with its electric and magnetic fields. Important on its own, this special property of nonradiating sources dramatically simplifies the analysis of their quantitative aspects, and enables the interpretation of nonradiating sources as distributions of the elementary dynamic anapoles. Using the developed approach we identify and discuss a possible scenario for observing the time-dependent version of the Aharonov-Bohm effect in such systems.

• Received 21 July 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.165134