The Geometric Phase as a Diagnostic for Driven-Dissipative Oscillators
Driven-dissipative quantum oscillators lock their phase, deform their limit cycles, and undergo dissipative phase transitions, yet these behaviors are read from unrelated quantities defined on the same steady-state density matrix. We show that a single geometric quantity organizes them. Winding the phase of the drive generates a closed loop of nonequilibrium steady states, and because the Liouvillian is covariant under number rotations, the kinematic mixed-state geometric phase of this loop reduces exactly to an eigensystem functional of a single steady state. Under weak driving, it is governed by the same nearest-neighbor coherences that produce phase locking and inherits the Arnold tongue of synchronization. Near the Hopf threshold, it registers the nonperturbative reorganization of the steady-state eigenvectors. And in the squeezing-driven Kerr resonator, it develops distinct signatures at the first and second order dissipative phase transitions. The geometric phase thus provides a unified and experimentally accessible characterization of steady-state reorganization.