Geometric phase and Pancharatnam phase induced by light wave polarization

We use the quantum kinematic approach to revisit geometric phases associated with polarizing processes of a monochromatic light wave. We give the expressions of geometric phases for any, unitary or non-unitary, cyclic or non-cyclic transformations of the light wave state. Contrarily to the usually considered case of absorbing polarizers, we found that a light wave passing through a polarizer may acquire in general a nonzero geometric phase. This geometric phase exists despite the fact that initial and final polarization states are in phase according to the Pancharatnam criterion and cannot be measured using interferometric superposition. Consequently, there is a difference between the Pancharatnam phase and the complete geometric phase acquired by a light wave passing through a polarizer. We illustrate our work with the particular example of total reflection based polarizers.     

Optical tuning of Berry phase effect in topological insulators

We theoretically discuss the influence of driving laser field on the topological nature, one of the manifestation of the electron Berry phase effect, in two-dimensional electronic systems. Adiabatic change of the laser amplitude with circular polarization alters the “order parameter”, termed the Chern number, in topological insulator with broken time-reversal symmetry, resulting in photo-induced phase transition. The finding is an optical analog of the integer quantum Hall effect, that is triggered by the laser field instead of magnetic field. This parallelism suggests the similarity of effects to electron dynamics between circularly polarized light and magnetic field.     

PT symmetric Floquet topological phase in SSH model

We consider periodically modulated Su–Schrieffer–Heeger (SSH) model with gain and loss. This model, which can be realized with current technology in photonics using waveguides, allows us to study Floquet topological insulating phase. By using Floquet theory, we find the quasi-energy spectrum of this one dimensional PT symmetric topological insulator. We show that stable Floquet topological phase exists in our model provided that oscillation frequency is large and the non-Hermitian degree is below than a critical value.     

Monopole and topological electron dynamics in adiabatic spintronic and graphene systems

A unified theoretical treatment is presented to describe the physics of electron dynamics in semiconductor and graphene systems. Electron spin's fast alignment with the Zeeman magnetic field (physical or effective) is treated as a form of adiabatic spin evolution which necessarily generates a monopole in magnetic space. One could transform this monopole into the physical and intuitive topological magnetic fields in the useful momentum (K) or real spaces (R). The physics of electron dynamics related to spin Hall, torque, oscillations and other technologically useful spinor effects can be inferred from the topological magnetic fields in spintronic, graphene and other SU(2) systems.     

A proposal for detecting second order topological quantum phase

Gaussian linking of a semiclassical path of a charged particle with a magnetic flux tube is responsible for the Aharonov-Bohm effect, where one observes interference proportional to the magnitude of the enclosed flux. We construct quantum mechanical wave functions where semiclassical paths can have second order linking to two magnetic flux tubes, and show there is interference proportional to the product of the two fluxes.     

Floquet topological phase transitions and chiral edge states in a kagome lattice

The Floquet topological phases and chiral edge states in a kagome lattice under a circularly-polarized driving field are studied. In the off-resonant case, the system exhibits the similar character as the kagome lattice model with staggered magnetic fluxes, but the total band width is damped in oscillation. In the on-resonant case, the degeneracy splitting at the Γ point does not always result in a gap. The positions of the other two gaps are influenced by the flat band. With the field intensity increased, these two gaps undergo closing-then-reopening processes, accompanied with the changing of the winding numbers.     

New observables in topological instantonic field theories

Instantonic theories are quantum field theories where all correlators are determined by integrals over the finite-dimensional space (space of generalized instantons). We consider novel geometrical observables in instantonic topological quantum mechanics that are strikingly different from standard evaluation observables. These observables allow jumps of special type for the trajectory (at the point of insertion of such observables). They do not (anti)commute with evaluation observables and raise the dimension of the space of allowed configurations, while the evaluation observables lower this dimension. We study these observables in geometric and operator formalisms. Simple examples are explicitly computed; they depend on the linking of points.     

Microscopy of non-birefringent transmissive phase samples using Sagnac laser interferometer

A cyclic interferometer, appropriately combined with a long working distance microscope objective, is adapted for quantitative phase microscopy. In such an arrangement, the sample information, in terms of the diffracted orders emerging from the sample, is carried by both the counter propagating beams within the cyclic interferometer. However, positioning the sample close to the input/output cube beam splitter and use of a suitably converging laser beam of light as the input to the interferometer ensure that only one of the counter propagating beams carries the object information to the objective while the other beam, which serves as the reference, allows only the undiffracted component to contribute to the process of image formation. Use of suitable polarization optics renders the interferometer its polarization phase shifting property. Using the proposed arrangement, the experimental results showing the quantitative 3D phase rendering of polystyrene microspheres and micro-wells etched in glass are presented.     

Coherence and the statistics of the phase difference between partially polarized electromagnetic waves

Coherence between two vectorial harmonic light vibrations is analyzed in terms of the statistics of their phase difference. This provides a natural and simple extension of second-order coherence to cover more complicate situations. In particular this assigns large coherence to quantum light states providing the most accurate interferometric measurements allowed by the quantum theory, even if they are incoherent according to the standard second-order approach.     

量子Berry相因子与相位教学

回顾了经典物理和量子力学中的相位问题,着重讨论了量子几何Berry相位及在量子力学中如何进行量子相位教学的问题.     

Determination of the amplitude and the phase of the elements of electric cross-spectral density matrix by spectral measurements

The amplitudes and the phases of the elements of electric cross-spectral density matrix are determined experimentally for a pair of points in the cross-section of an expanded laser beam. A modified version of the Young’s interferometer is used as an experimental tool, which separates the beams emerging from the double-slit widely and provides ease in insertion of polarizers and half wave rotators in individual beams. To determine these complex elements of the cross-spectral density matrix, the experimentally obtained values of the spectral densities at an off-axis point are put in the mathematical expressions derived by us using the spectral interference law. The four complex generalized Stokes parameters are also determined using the linear combinations of the matrix elements. This unique but simple experimental approach for determining both the two-point parameters might provide a means to investigate the polarization and the coherence properties of the random electromagnetic beams on propagation.     

The real topological vertex at work

We develop the real vertex formalism for the computation of the topological string partition function with D-branes and O-planes at the fixed point locus of an anti-holomorphic involution acting non-trivially on the toric diagram of any local toric Calabi–Yau manifold. Our results cover in particular the real vertex with non-trivial fixed leg. We give a careful derivation of the relevant ingredients using duality with Chern–Simons theory on orbifolds. We show that the real vertex can also be interpreted in terms of a statistical model of symmetric crystal melting. Using this latter connection, we also assess the constant map contribution in Calabi–Yau orientifold models. We find that there are no perturbative contributions beyond one-loop, but a non-trivial sum over non-perturbative sectors, which we compare with the non-perturbative contribution to the closed string expansion.     

The quantum geometric phase as a transformation invariant

The kinematic approach to the theory of the geometric phase is outlined. This phase is shown to be the simplest invariant under natural groups of transformations on curves in Hilbert space. The connection to the Bargmann invariant is brought out, and the case of group representations described.     

Strongly nonlinear topological phases of cascaded topoelectrical circuits

Circuits provide ideal platforms of topological phases and matter, yet the study of topological circuits in the strongly nonlinear regime, has been lacking. We propose and experimentally demonstrate strongly nonlinear topological phases and transitions in one-dimensional electrical circuits composed of nonlinear capacitors. Nonlinear topological interface modes arise on domain walls of the circuit lattices, whose topological phases are controlled by the amplitudes of nonlinear voltage waves. Experimentally measured topological transition amplitudes are in good agreement with those derived from nonlinear topological band theory. Our prototype paves the way towards flexible metamaterials with amplitude-controlled rich topological phases and is readily extendable to two and three-dimensional systems that allow novel applications.     

拓扑绝缘体的普适电导涨落

拓扑绝缘体因其无能量耗散的拓扑表面输运而备受关注, 揭示拓扑表面态因其 的贝利相位而产生的拓扑输运现象, 将有助于拓扑绝缘体相关器件的应用开发. 本文回顾了普适电导涨落(UCF) 揭示拓扑绝缘体奇异输运性质的研究进展. 通过调控温度、角度、门电压、垂直磁场和平行磁场等外部参量, 实现了对拓扑绝缘体的UCF 效应的系统研究, 证实了拓扑绝缘体中二维UCF 的输运现象, 并通过尺寸标度规律获得了UCF 的拓扑起源的实验证据, 讨论了拓扑表面态的UCF 的统计对称规律. 从而实现了对拓扑绝缘体UCF 效应的较为完整的理解.     

Zitterbewegung and gravitational Berry phase

Berry phases mix states of positive and negative energy in the propagation of fermions and bosons in external gravitational and electromagnetic fields and generate Zitterbewegung oscillations. The results are valid in any reference frame and to any order of approximation in the metric deviation.     

Geometric curvature and phase of the Rabi model

We study the geometric curvature and phase of the Rabi model. Under the rotating-wave approximation (RWA), we apply the gauge independent Berry curvature over a surface integral to calculate the Berry phase of the eigenstates for both single and two-qubit systems, which is found to be identical with the system of spin-1/2 particle in a magnetic field. We extend the idea to define a vacuum-induced geometric curvature when the system starts from an initial state with pure vacuum bosonic field. The induced geometric phase is related to the average photon number in a period which is possible to measure in the qubit–cavity system. We also calculate the geometric phase beyond the RWA and find an anomalous sudden change, which implies the breakdown of the adiabatic theorem and the Berry phases in an adiabatic cyclic evolution are ill-defined near the anti-crossing point in the spectrum.     

Born-Oppenheimer近似下谐振子场驱动电磁模系统的Berry相和Hannay角

研究了Born-Oppenheimer近似下谐振子场驱动电磁模系统的Berry相和Hannay角, 通过理论计算得到了其表达式, 并讨论了这二者之间的半经典关系.结果表明, 这一量子Born-Oppenheimer复合系统的Berry相包含两部分: 第一部分与通常几何相的定义相同, 另一项则是由耦合造成的有效规范式引入的.这一量子修正可以被看作一个等效的Aharonov-Bohm效应.不仅如此, 其对应经典系统的Hannay角的定义中也存在类似的现象. 由此可见, 这一复合系统的Berry相与Hannay角之间也存在半经典关系, 并与文献[16] 中通常情况下的半经典关系相同.此外, 上述理论也可以运用于解决产生中性原子的人造规范势等物理问题. 关键词： Berry相 Hannay角 量子经典对应 Born-Oppenheimer近似     

等离子体波背景下的光子Berry相位

利用光学度规将强激光脉冲激发的电子等离子体波描述为有效几何背景.借助于广义相对论中弯曲时空下的Maxwell方程组得到了探针光子在等离子体中电子等离子体波背景下(被处理为有效度规)所满足的运动方程及光子的Hamilton表达式.导出了电子等离子体波对光子Berry相位贡献的解析表达式并且对光子在真空中Berry相位的修正做了数值估算. 关键词： 电子等离子体波 等离子体 Berry相位