Quest 2009

Geometric Phases in Physics

St. Stephens College

Geometry The Physical Approach

Instruments Scale to measure very small lengths, protractor to measure angles, ability to draw. Geometry becomes the study of the relationship between lengths and angles. For instance Pythagoras Theorem, C = 2r for a circle in flat Euclidean space.

Curved Surfaces

Curved Surfaces
What does it mean for surface to be locally flat?
Pythagoras theorem holds for small triangles. Angles of a triangle sum up to 180 degrees. Circumference of circle = 2r if r is small enough. Etc.

Conclusion - Euclidean geometry holds for small neighborhoods.

Parallel Transport
Surface is locally Euclidean implies that we can define vectors locally i.e. a sense of direction on the surface. We will consider only 2-d curved surfaces which therefore look like a plane locally. Locally Euclidean space implies that we know how to translate vectors locally.
Mathematically choose a locally orthogonal coordinate system and conserve the components. Physically, carry the vector without any physical rotation (in 2 dimension).

Anholonomy
The parallel translation of a vector around a closed loop on a curved surface does not always yield back the same vector unlike on a flat surface. This is called anholonomy. For a sphere, the vector is rotated by an angle equal to the solid angle enclosed by the loop.

Foucault Pendulum
A suspended long pendulum which does not twist. It was the first successful physics demonstration which proved that the earth rotates.

Traveling

Twisting

Twisting + Traveling

Foucault Pendulum
Phase shift = Solid angle enclosed by the loop.

Geometric Phase in Optics

Pancharatnam phase Chiao-Wu phase
Linearly polarized light passing through a fiber optic cable k parallel to the direction of the cable (approximation) From Maxwells Laws, E.k = 0, which means E is always normal to the cable and changes gradually as we move along the cable Speed of light is a constant, frequency is constant implies that k restricted to a sphere since |k| = constant. Assume that incident and transmitted beam in same direction which means a closed path in k-sphere. E tangent to this sphere all along and moves gradually so is basically parallel translated, behaves in the same way as a Foucaults Pendulum. As a result, the direction of the electric field of the linearly polarized incident wave changes when it passes a coiled optic fiber.

References
The Quantum Phase, Five Years After M.V. Berry Foucault Pendulum through Elementary Geometry Bergmann and Wang Observations of Berrys topological phase by use of an optical fiber Tomita and Chiao

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