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arXiv:2404.05747

Physical mechanism for the geometric phases in optics and angular momentum holonomy

Suresh Chandra Tiwari

Published Apr 3, 2024• 0 citations
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Abstract

Vast literature on the experiments and mathematical formulations on the geometric phases signifies the importance of this subject. Physical mechanism for the origin of the geometric phases in optics was suggested in 1992 by the author in terms of the exchange of the angular momentum. Some of the literature has taken notice of it, however, the real import of the suggested mechanism and the angular momentum holonomy conjecture has remained elusive. The present contribution delineates the prevailing confusions and offers a thorough discussion on the nature of the light waves to resolve the conceptual issues. It is argued that at a fundamental level there exist only two types of geometric phases arising from (i) the geometry of the wave vector space, and (ii) the polarization state space. For the light beams of definite polarization spatial modes (HG or LG modes) the geometric phase has origin in the wave vector space that is different than the spin redirection phase for the polarized light. Angular momentum holonomy is proposed to be equivalent to the geometric phase in general.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2404.05747

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Vast literature on the experiments and mathematical formulations on the geometric phases signifies the importance of this subject. Physical mechanism for the origin of the geometric phases in optics was suggested in 1992 by the author in terms of the exchange of the angular momentum. Some of the literature has taken notice of it, however, the real import of the suggested mechanism and the angular momentum holonomy conjecture has remained elusive. The present contribution delineates the prevailing confusions and offers a thorough discussion on the nature of the light waves to resolve the conceptual issues. It is argued that at a fundamental level there exist only two types of geometric phases arising from (i) the geometry of the wave vector space, and (ii) the polarization state space. For the light beams of definite polarization spatial modes (HG or LG modes) the geometric phase has origin in the wave vector space that is different than the spin redirection phase for the polarized light. Angular momentum holonomy is proposed to be equivalent to the geometric phase in general.
Recently the physical mechanism for geometric phase in optics has been elucidated in terms of the angular momentum holonomy proposed in 1992. Aharonov and Kaufherr (PRL, 92, 070404, 2004) revisit the Aharonov-Bohm effect, and propose non-local exchange of a conserved, gauge invariant quantity that changes the modular momentum of the particle that is responsible for the AB phase shift. We suggest that the net angular momentum shifts proposed for GP may be analogous to the shift in the modulus momentum for the AB effect. At a single photon or electron level such non-trivial, geometric effects seem to hint at a new physics.
The transverse spatial structure of a paraxial beam of light is fully characterized by a set of parameters that vary only slowly under free propagation. They specify bosonic ladder operators that connect modes of different orders, in analogy to the ladder operators connecting harmonic-oscillator wave functions. The parameter spaces underlying sets of higher-order modes are isomorphic to the parameter space of the ladder operators. We study the geometry of this space and the geometric phase that arises from it. This phase constitutes the ultimate generalization of the Gouy phase in paraxial wave optics. It reduces to the ordinary Gouy phase and the geometric phase of nonastigmatic optical modes with orbital angular momentum in limiting cases. We briefly discuss the well-known analogy between geometric phases and the Aharonov–Bohm effect, which provides some complementary insights into the geometric nature and origin of the generalized Gouy phase shift. Our method also applies to the quantum-mechanical description of wave packets. It allows for obtaining complete sets of normalized solutions of the Schrödinger equation. Cyclic transformations of such wave packets give rise to a phase shift, which has a geometric interpretation in terms of the other degrees of freedom involved.
While the complex formalism of quantum mechanics has been extraordinarily successful, the fundamental geometric origin of its core elements—the imaginary unit, operator non-commutativity, quantum phase, and the intrinsic geometry with quantum spin—has remained unresolved for more than a century. Here we resolve these foundational questions by deriving an exact and physically equivalent formulation of the Schrödinger equation as a Real Geometric Flow—a moving-frame evolution on a 2𝑁-dimensional real state space. In this restored framework, the global imaginary unit 𝑖 fully decomposes into a set of local skew-symmetric generators that drive planar rotations in real space, revealing that the traditional complex formalism is a compressed representation of an intrinsic rotational geometry.Within the real geometric flow, energy eigenvalues appear as the Curvatures of the state trajectory, energy gaps correspond to Torsions that couple internal planes—naturally generating the geometry of quantum spin—and quantum phase emerges naturally as the Holonomy of the real moving frame. This formulation preserves the full empirical content of quantum mechanics while exposing the geometric mechanisms hidden beneath its notation, providing the first coherent explanation of curvature, torsion, non-commutativity, spin behavior, and quantum phase within a single framework.By demonstrating that the algebraic postulates of quantum mechanics arise from a deeper geometric order—one that stands alongside curvature-based theories such as General Relativity—this work establishes a unified differential-geometric foundation for quantum dynamics.It opens new directions for quantum control, quantum information, and fundamental physics.