Berry's phases and topological properties in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation

Abstract

The level crossing problem is neatly formulated by the second quantized formulation, which exhibits a hidden local gauge symmetry. The analysis of geometric phases is reduced to a simple diagonalization of the Hamiltonian. If one diagonalizes the geometric terms in the infinitesimal neighborhood of level crossing, the geometric phases become trivial (and thus no monopole singularity) for arbitrarily large but finite time interval $T$. The topological proof of the Longuet-Higgins' phase-change rule, for example, thus fails in the practical Born-Oppenheimer approximation where $T$ is identified with the period of the slower system. The crucial difference between the Aharonov-Bohm phase and the geometric phase is explained. It is also noted that the gauge symmetries involved in the adiabatic and non-adiabatic geometric phases are quite different.