Interferometric Geometric Phases of $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

We present a generalization of the geometric phase to pure and thermal states in $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric quantum mechanics (PTQM) based on the approach of the interferometric geometric phase (IGP). The formalism first introduces the parallel-transport conditions of quantum states and reveals two geometric phases, ${\theta }^1$ and ${\theta }^2$, for pure states in PTQM according to the states under parallel-transport. Due to the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian in PTQM, ${\theta }^1$ is complex and ${\theta }^2$ is its real part. The imaginary part of ${\theta }^1$ plays an important role when we generalize the IGP to thermal states in PTQM. The generalized IGP modifies the thermal distribution of a thermal state, thereby introducing effective temperatures. At certain critical points, the generalized IGP exhibits discrete jumps at finite temperatures, signaling a geometric phase transition. We demonstrate the finite-temperature geometric phase transition in PTQM by a two-level system and visualize its results.

12 pages, 3 figures

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