Jahn-Teller induced Berry phase in spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

We demonstrate that Berry phases may greatly affect the dynamics of spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensates. The effective model Hamiltonian under consideration is shown to be equivalent to the Exe Jahn-Teller model first introduced in molecular physics. The corresponding conical intersection is identified and the Berry phase acquired for a wave packet encircling the intersection studied. It is found that this phase manifests itself in the density profile of the condensate, making it a directly measurable quantity via time-of-flight detection. Moreover, the non-Abelian gauge structure of the system is addressed and we verify how it affects the dynamics.