Quantum geometry has emerged as a powerful framework for understanding topological, optical and transport phenomena, revealing connections between the quantum geometric tensor (QGT) and linear response functions. Building on these developments, recent works formulate quantum geometry so that the parameter space is extended from the Brillouin zone to the space of external perturbing fields that modify the ground state. Here we develop a self-consistent diagrammatric route to determine the QGT for generic parameter spaces, including collective fluctuations or structural distortions. With this in view, we generalize previous approaches to build the geometric tensor from interacting vertex correlations that provide the spectral metric and curvature. The formalism presented here extends the interaction-dressed vertex approach (previously applied to electromagnetic responses in momentum space) to collective electronic and structural deformation fields, complementing ongoing efforts to quantify many-body contributions to quantum geometry.
Quantum geometry characterizes the variation of wavefunctions in momentum space through their overlaps and relative phases, providing a general framework for understanding many transport and optical properties. It is generally formulated in terms of interband matrix elements, which, entering the response functions, allow obtaining experimental access to the quantum geometric tensor. Recently, it has been emphasized that quantum geometry can also be interpreted in terms of quantum dipole fluctuations in the ground state driven by interband mixing. Here, we extend this picture to include contributions from many-body collective fluctuations, in which propagators and response vertices are dressed dynamically by the interaction with collective modes. Focusing on the Berry curvature, we show that contributions from collective fluctuations can be experimentally distinguished from bare band-geometric contributions, via specific antisymmetric channels in inelastic scattering spectra. We further identify the non-commutative properties of transverse quantum fluctuations as well as non-local-time interactions as the generators of this dynamical curvature in the susceptibility response.
Consider a set of quantum states $|\ensuremath{\psi}(x)\ensuremath{\rangle}$ parameterized by
x taken from some parameter space
M. We demonstrate how all geometric properties of this manifold of states are fully described by a scalar gauge-invariant Bargmann invariant
P(3)(x1,x2,x3)=tr[P(x1)P(x2)P(x3)], where $P(x)=|\ensuremath{\psi}(x)\ensuremath{\rangle}\ensuremath{\langle}\ensuremath{\psi}(x)|$ are the projectors. Mathematically,
P(x) defines a map from
M to the complex projective space
CPn and this map is uniquely determined by
P(3)(x1,x2,x3) up to a symmetry transformation. The phase
argP(3)(x1,x2,x3) can be used to compute the Berry phase for any closed loop in
M, however, as we prove, it contains other information that cannot be extracted from any Berry phase. When the arguments
xi of
P(3)(x1,x2,x3) are taken close to each other, to the leading order, it reduces to the familiar Berry curvature $\ensuremath{\omega}$ and quantum metric
g. We show that higher orders in this expansion are functionally independent of $\ensuremath{\omega}$ and
g and are related to the extrinsic properties of the map of
M into
CPn giving rise to new local gauge-invariant objects, such as the fully symmetric 3-tensor
T. Finally, we show how our results have immediate applications to the modern theory of polarization, calculation of the electric current response to a modulated field and physics of flat bands.
An isolated group of
k bands in an
N-level quantum system defines a rank-
k spectral projector and hence a map into the complex Grassmannian
Gr(k,N). For a smooth gapped Hamiltonian, this projector is globally smooth and periodic even when band topology obstructs a globally smooth periodic, or symmetry-compatible, Bloch frame. We take the globally defined differential $\dd P$ as the central object: it is the tangent field of the Grassmannian map, removes unphysical rotations within the selected subspace, and retains the physical interband transition. The interband block of this tangent data simultaneously determines the quantum metric and Berry curvature; the associated horizontal generator produces finite Grassmannian motion, while wedge products of $\dd P$ enter topological forms. We construct a shortest path between two projectors in the ambient Grassmannian and show that the singular values of its horizontal generator block are the principal angles between the endpoint subspaces. This construction provides a piecewise-geodesic interpretation of discrete geometric phases. In a separate development, we derive a basis-independent expression for the determinant of a multiband Wilson loop from traces of powers of an ordered projector product, without decomposing a degenerate band multiplet into individual bands. Finally, the same tangent-vector calculus organizes Chern characters, chiral winding numbers, and the time-reversal
Z2 index. The resulting framework unifies local quantum geometry, finite subspace distance, holonomy, and topology while avoiding global gauge fixing.
The quantum geometric tensor and quantum Fisher information have recently been shown to provide a unified geometric description of the linear response of many-body systems. However, a similar geometric description of higher-order perturbative phenomena including nonlinear response in generic quantum systems is lacking. In this work, we develop a general framework for the time-dependent quantum geometry of many-body systems by treating external perturbing fields as coordinates on the space of density matrices. We use the Bures distance between the initial and time-evolved density matrix to define geometric quantities through a perturbative expansion. To lowest order, we derive a time-dependent generalization of the Bures metric related to the spectral density of linear response functions, unifying previous results for the quantum metric in various limits and providing a geometric interpretation of Fermi’s golden rule. At next order in the expansion, we define a time-dependent Bures-Levi-Civita connection for general many-body systems. We show that the connection is the sum of one contribution that is related to a second-order nonlinear response function, and a second contribution that captures the higher geometric structure of first-order perturbation theory. We show that in the quasistatic, zero-temperature limit for noninteracting fermions, this Bures connection reduces to the known expression for band-theoretic Christoffel symbols. Our work provides a systematic framework to explore many-body quantum geometry beyond the quantum metric and highlights how higher-order correlation functions can probe this geometry.
The geometry of Bloch bands affects many physical properties of crystalline solids and other spatially periodic systems. Direct experimental determination of such geometry is an active area of research. In this work, we focus on the fundamental connection between optical excitations and the relative geometry of pairs of Bloch bands, as characterized by the interband Berry connection. We simulate the response of electrons in solids to optical excitation by the response of ultracold fermionic atoms in optical lattices to periodic modulation of the lattice position. The strength of resonant excitation between bands, measured at each quasimomentum and for various lattice-shaking polarizations, directly maps out the interband Berry connection. We apply this method to the optical honeycomb lattice, driving excitations between the ground
n=1 band and the excited
n′={2,3,4} bands. We observe transparency lines of quasimomenta at which the response to excitation of specific polarization is zero. Further, the interband Berry connection between bands 1 and 3 shows irreducible Dirac strings connecting the
K and
K′ points in the Brillouin zone, lines along which the interband Berry connection abruptly changes orientation. Our work establishes optical response as a powerful tool for characterizing geometrical and topological properties of band structure.