Mixed state non-Abelian holonomy for subsystems

Abstract

Non-Abelian holonomy in dynamical systems may arise in adiabatic transport of energetically degenerate sets of states. We examine such a holonomy structure for mixtures of energetically degenerate quantal states. We demonstrate that this structure has a natural interpretation in terms of the standard Wilczek-Zee holonomy associated with a certain class of Hamiltonians that couple the system to an ancilla. The mixed state holonomy is analysed for holonomic quantum computation using ion traps.