Gauge freedom in observables and Landsbergs nonadiabatic geometric phase: pumping spectroscopy of interacting open quantum systems

Abstract

We set up a general density-operator approach to geometric steady-state pumping through slowly driven open quantum systems. This approach applies to strongly interacting systems that are weakly coupled to multiple reservoirs at high temperature, illustrated by an Anderson quantum dot, but shows potential for generalization. Pumping gives rise to a nonadiabatic geometric phase that can be described by a framework originally developed for classical dissipative systems by Landsberg. This geometric phase is accumulated by the transported observable (charge, spin, energy) and not by the quantum state. It thus differs radically from the adiabatic Berry-Simon phase, even when generalizing it to mixed states, following Sarandy and Lidar. Importantly, our geometric formulation of pumping stays close to a direct physical intuition (i) by tying gauge transformations to calibration of the meter registering the transported observable and (ii) by deriving a geometric connection from a driving-frequency expansion of the current. Our approach provides a systematic and efficient way to compute the geometric pumping of various observables, including charge, spin, energy and heat. Our geometric curvature formula reveals a general experimental scheme for performing geometric transport spectroscopy that enhances standard nonlinear spectroscopies based on measurements for static parameters. We indicate measurement strategies for separating the useful geometric pumping contribution to transport from nongeometric effects. Finally, we highlight several advantages of our approach in an exhaustive comparison with the Sinitsyn-Nemenmann full-counting statistics (FCS) approach to geometric pumping of an observable`s first moment. We explain how in the FCS approach an "adiabatic" approximation leads to a manifestly nonadiabatic result involving a finite retardation time of the response to parameter driving.