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On geometric interpretation of Berry's phase and the Aharonov-Bohm effect

Mikhail Orionovich Katanaev

Published Sep 2, 2009• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

A geometric interpretation of Berry’s phase, its Wilczek–Zee non-Abelian generalization, and Aharonov–Bohm effect is given in terms of connections on principal fiber bundles. It is shown that a principal fiber bundle in all cases can be trivial while the connection and its holonomy group are nontrivial. Therefore the main role is played not by topological effects but geometrical ones. The Berry phase is also shown not to be connected to the adiabatic changes of the Hamiltonian parameters. 1

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A geometric interpretation of Berry’s phase, its Wilczek–Zee non-Abelian generalization, and Aharonov–Bohm effect is given in terms of connections on principal fiber bundles. It is shown that a principal fiber bundle in all cases can be trivial while the connection and its holonomy group are nontrivial. Therefore the main role is played not by topological effects but geometrical ones. The Berry phase is also shown not to be connected to the adiabatic changes of the Hamiltonian parameters. 1
Geometric phases form a rich subject in mathematical physics, lying at the intersection of differential geometry, functional analysis, and topology. This combination of ideas can make the subject difficult to approach for advanced undergraduate students, even though it is very rewarding. The aim of this thesis is to give a self-contained introduction to the mathematical framework behind geometric phases. Assuming only basic differential geometry, we develop the theory of vector bundles, connections, curvature, and holonomy, and use it to describe the Berry and Wilczek–Zee phases as holonomies of natural connections on complex vector bundles. We also discuss the Aharonov–Bohm effect as an example of a flat connection with globally nontrivial holonomy.
The line bundles that arise in the holonomy interpretations of the geometric phase display curious similarities to those encountered in the statement of the Borel–Weil–Bott theorem of the representation theory. The remarkable relationship between the mathematical structure of the geometric phase and the classification theorem for complex line bundles provides the necessary tools for establishing the relevance of the Borel–Weil–Bott theorem to Berry’s adiabatic phase. This enables one to define a set of topological charges for arbitrary compact connected semisimple dynamical Lie groups. These charges signify the topological content of the phase. They can be explicitly computed. In this paper, the problem of the determination of the parameter space of the Hamiltonian is also addressed. It is shown that, in general, the parameter space is either a flag manifold or one of its submanifolds. A simple topological argument is presented to indicate the relation between the Riemannian structure on the parameter space and Berry’s connection. The results about the fiber bundles and group theory are used to introduce a procedure to reduce the problem of the nonadiabatic (geometric) phase to Berry’s adiabatic phase for cranked Hamiltonians. Finally, the possible relevance of the topological charges of the geometric phase to those of the non-Abelian monopoles is pointed out.
The line bundles which arise in the holonomy interpretations of the geometric phase display curious similarities to those encountered in the statement of the Borel-Weil-Bott theorem of the representation theory. The remarkable relation of the geometric phase to the classification of complex line bundles provides the necessary tools for establishing the relevance of the Borel-Weil-Bott theorem to Berry's adiabatic phase. This enables one to define a set of topological charges for arbitrary compact connected semisimple dynamical Lie groups. In this paper, the problem of the determination of the parameter space of the Hamiltonian is also addressed. A simple topological argument is presented to indicate the relation between the Riemannian structure on the parameter space and Berry's connection. The results about the fibre bundles and group theory are used to introduce a procedure to reduce the problem of the non-adiabatic (geometric) phase to Berry's adiabatic phase for cranked Hamiltonians. Finally, the possible relevance of the topological charges of the geometric phase to those of the non-abelian monopoles is pointed out.
By analyzing an exactly solvable model in the second quantized formulation which allows a unified treatment of adiabatic and non-adiabatic geometric phases, it is shown that the topology of the adiabatic Berry's phase, which is characterized by the singularity associated with possible level crossing, is trivial in a precise sense. This topology of the geometric phase is quite different from the topology of the Aharonov-Bohm effect, where the topology is specified by the external local gauge field and it is exact for the slow as well as for the fast motion of the electron.
It is shown that the "geometrical phase factor" recently found by Berry in his study of the quantum adiabatic theorem is precisely the holonomy in a Hermitian line bundle since the adiabatic theorem naturally defines a connection in such a bundle. This not only takes the mystery out of Berry's phase factor and provides calculational simple formulas, but makes a connection between Berry's work and that of Thouless et al. This connection allows the author to use Berry's ideas to interpret the integers of Thouless et al. in terms of eigenvalue degeneracies.