Effective Theory of Non-Adiabatic Quantum Evolution Based on the Quantum Geometric Tensor (1612.02998v2)

Abstract: We study the role of the quantum geometric tensor (QGT) in the evolution of quantum systems. We show that all its components play an important role on the extra phase acquired by a spinor and on the trajectory of an accelerated wavepacket in any realistic finite-duration experiment. While the adiabatic phase is determined by the Berry curvature (the imaginary part of the tensor), the non-adiabaticity is determined by the quantum metric (the real part of the tensor) and allows to determine corrections in the regimes where Landau-Zener approach is inapplicable. The particular case of a planar microcavity in the strong coupling regime allows to extract the QGT components by direct light polarization measurements and to check their effects on the quantum evolution.