Geometry of adiabatic Hamiltonians for two-level quantum systems

Abstract

We present the formulation of the problem of the coherent dynamics of quantum mechanical two-level systems in the adiabatic region in terms of the differential geometry of plane curves. We show that there is a natural plane curve corresponding to the Hamiltonian of the system for which the geometrical quantities have a simple physical interpretation. In particular, the curvature of the curve has the role of the nonadiabatic coupling.