2025/05/21 by Xin Wang, Hao Guo, Wang, Xin +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2505.15609
openalex publication_date 2025/05/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
The Wilczek-Zee (WZ) holonomy arises in degenerate states while the Uhlmann holonomy characterizes finite-temperature topology. We investigate possible relationships between the Uhlmann phase and the scalar WZ phase, which reflects the Uhlmann and WZ holonomy respectively, in an exemplary four-level model with two doubly degenerate subspaces. Through exact solutions, we contrast the behavior of the Uhlmann and WZ connections and their associated phases. In the zero-temperature limit, the Uhlmann phase may or may not agree with the scalar WZ phase of the degenerate ground states due to obstructions from the Hamiltonian manifested as Dirac points. This is in stark contrast to non-degenerate systems where the correspondence between the Uhlmann and Berry phases in general holds. Our analyses further show that for the example studied here, the Uhlmann phase catches the singular behavior at the Dirac points while the WZ connection and scalar WZ phase vanish along a zero-field axis. We also briefly discuss possible experimental implications.