Non-Abelian generalization of off-diagonal geometric phases

Abstract

If a quantum system evolves in a noncyclic fashion the corresponding geometric phase or holonomy may not be fully defined. Off-diagonal geometric phases have been developed to deal with such cases. Here, we generalize these phases to the non-Abelian case, by introducing off-diagonal holonomies that involve evolution of more than one subspace of the underlying Hilbert space. Physical realizations of the off-diagonal holonomies in adiabatic evolution and interferometry are put forward.