Geometric phase distributions for open quantum systems

K. -P. Marzlin, S. Ghose, B. C. Sanders

Published 2004-05-11, updated 2004-08-25Version 2

In an open system, the geometric phase should be described by a distribution. We show that a geometric phase distribution for open system dynamics is in general ambiguous, but the imposition of reasonable physical constraints on the environment and its coupling with the system yields a unique geometric phase distribution that applies even for mixed states, non-unitary dynamics, and non-cyclic evolutions.