Berry's phase at quantum vacuum level

Abstract

The quantum vacuum contribution to Berry's geometric phase of photon fields inside a noncoplanarly curved (coiled) fiber is considered by means of the second-quantization formulation. It is shown that the quantum vacuum Berry's phases of left- and right-handed circularly polarized light have the equal magnitudes but opposite signs, and are therefore eliminated entirely by each other. In order to realize such a novel vacuum effect, a scheme to separate the quantum vacuum Berry's phase of one polarized light from another by using the chiral medium fiber is suggested. We think the present study might be the first treatment for the time evolution of vacuum zero-point energy.