Topological Uhlmann phase transitions for a spin-j particle in a magnetic field

Abstract

The generalization of the geometric phase to the realm of mixed states is known as Uhlmann phase. Recently, applications of this concept to the field of topological insulators have been made and an experimental observation of a characteristic critical temperature at which the topological Uhlmann phase disappears has also been reported. Surprisingly, to our knowledge, the Uhlmann phase of such a paradigmatic system as the spin-$j$ particle in presence of a slowly rotating magnetic field has not been reported to date. Here we study the case of such a system in a thermal ensemble. We find that the Uhlmann phase is given by the argument of a complex valued second kind Chebyshev polynomial of order $2j$. Correspondingly, the Uhlmann phase displays $2j$ singularities, occurying at the roots of such polynomials which define critical temperatures at which the system undergoes topological order transitions. Appealing to the argument principle of complex analysis each topological order is characterized by a winding number, which happen to be $2j$ for the ground state and decrease by unity each time increasing temperature passes through a critical value. We hope this study encourages experimental verification of this phenomenon of thermal control of topological properties, as has already been done for the spin-$1/2$ particle.