For the Jaynes-Cummings model (JCM) the cyclic evolution of parameters produces a nontrivial phase shift of the wavefunction of geometric origin. This phase can be measured by the Ramsey interferometry of the atomic states.
Motivated by work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 220404 (2002)] for detecting the vacuum-induced Berry phases with two-mode Jaynes-Cummings models (JCMs), we show here that, for a parameter-dependent single-mode JCM, certain atom-field states also acquired photon-number-dependent Berry phases after the parameter slowly changed and eventually returned to its initial value. This geometric effect related to the field quantization still exists, even if the field is kept in its vacuum state. Specifically, a feasible Ramsey interference experiment with a cavity quantum electrodynamics system is designed to detect the vacuum-induced Berry phase.
Since a pioneer work on vacuum-induced Berry phase (VIBP) was done by Fuentes-Guridi et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 220404], much attention has been paid to the geometric phase effects of vacuum field. However, all the so-called VIBPs investigated previously are not purely vacuum-induced (i.e. the nonvacuum components of the field are also involved). In this paper, we discuss how to deliver geometric phases from the evolution of a genuine vacuum field in a standard cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) system. First, we design a cyclic evolution of an atom–field system with the atom being initially prepared at the excited state and the field at the genuine vacuum. Then, we calculate the geometric phases acquired during such a cyclic evolution. It is found that such geometric phases are really induced by an evolution of the genuine vacuum field. Specifically, our generic proposal is demonstrated with both the one- and two-mode Jaynes–Cummings model interactions (JCM).