arXiv:1003.3076 · Physical Review A
Geometric phase in PT -symmetric quantum mechanics
Jiangbin Gong, Qinghai Wang
Abstract
Unitary evolution in $\mathcal{P}$$\mathcal{T}$-symmetric quantum mechanics (QM) with a time-dependent metric is found to yield an interesting class of adiabatic processes. As an explicit example, a Berry-like phase associated with a $\mathcal{P}$$\mathcal{T}$-symmetric two-level system is derived and is interpreted as the flux of a fictitious monopole with a tunable charge plus a singular string component with nontrivial phase contributions. To gain more insight, the Hermitian analog of our non-Hermitian problem is also analyzed, which results in an intriguing class of geometric-phase problems in conventional QM as well, where the Hamiltonian includes a perturbative term that is proportional to the rate of change in adiabatic parameters.