The Berry-Foucault Pendulum

Abstract

The geometric phase is known to play a role both in the rotation of the Foucault pendulum and in the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) due to the Berry curvature. Here, we show that a 2D harmonic oscillator with AHE induced by Berry curvature behaves exactly like the Foucault pendulum: in both, the plane of the oscillations rotates with time. The rotating pendulum configuration enhances the AHE, simplifying its observation and allowing high-precision measurements of the Berry curvature. We also show how the non-adiabaticity and anharmonicity determine the maximal rotation angle and find the optimal conditions for the observations.