Geometric phase of open paths and a geodesic-selection rule at a level degeneracy

Abstract

When the control field of a qubit, a polarization state, or a spin-$\tfrac12$ system is swept through a level degeneracy, its direction traces an open curve on the Bloch sphere whose endpoints are antipodal, and the geodesic rule for the open-path geometric phase becomes ambiguous: infinitely many geodesics close the path, and different closures enclose different solid angles. We resolve this ambiguity in closed form. A coordinate-free monopole connection defines the open-path solid angle $\Omega[C]$ intrinsically, and displacing the degeneracy by $\epsilon\uhat$ closes the path with enclosed solid angle $\Omega(\epsilon\uhat)=\Omega[C]+2\alpha+O(\epsilon)$, where $\alpha$ is the azimuth of the transverse part of $\uhat$ measured from the principal normal of the control curve at the crossing. The identity between geometric phase and enclosed solid angle therefore holds for exactly one closing geodesic---the great circle in the osculating plane ($\alpha=0$)---supplied by the curvature at the degeneracy. Berry's $\pi$ invariant under reversal of the displacement and the values $\pm\pi/2$ under a reflection symmetry follow as corollaries, and the pure-state limit of the finite-temperature Uhlmann phase selects the osculating-plane closure automatically, turning the heuristic closing rules of the open-path literature into a computable prescription.