Geometric phase for 'dark' subspaces in coherent population trapping

摘要

The concept of geometric phase acquired by a quantum state during its evolution is generalized to the subspace of states of evolving quantum system. Physical motivation of this generalization comes from the effect of coherent population trapping. Under certain conditions, there exists a two-dimensional "dark" subspace of atomic ground states that does not interact with the external radiation. The structure of this "dark" subspace depends on the local field amplitude. We show that certain mathematical difficulties in finding the geometric phase for "dark" subspaces can be circumvented with the help of the orthogonal "bright" subspace.