Eur. Phys. J.

D (2012) 66: 223

DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2012-20708-2
Regular Article
THE EUROPEAN
PHYSICAL JOURNAL D
Berry phase of many-body system: time-dependent
representation method
L.G. Yang
a
, B. Shao, and J. Zou
Key Laboratory of Cluster Science of Ministry of Education and School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology,
Beijing 100081, P.R. China
Received 6 December 2011 / Received in nal form 20 April 2012
Published online 30 August 2012 c EDP Sciences, Societ`a Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2012
Abstract. In this paper, we investigate the Berry phase of many-body system in the time-dependent
representation. The formula of Berry phase of many-body system calculating in the time-dependent rep-
resentation is derived. In this scenario, the Berry phase can be decomposed into two terms, which have
dierent physical meanings respectively. Using these formula, we calculated the Berry phase for the many-
spin system coupled by the XXZ exchange interaction. The results show that the Berry phase consists of
two contributions which can be interpreted as the ux of a nonquantized monopole and the ux of a Dirac
ring respectively.
1 Introduction
Geometric phases have been proposed as a typical mech-
anism for a quantum system to keep the memory of its
evolution in Hilbert space. Such phases were introduced
in quantum mechanics by Berry in 1984 [1]. In his semi-
nal work, Berry considered a quantum system undergoing
a cyclic, adiabatic evolution. It was then shown that if
the system is prepared in a nondegenerate eigenstate of
the initial Hamiltonian, then it will return to its initial
state accompanied by a phase factor that can be split into
a dynamic contribution, which depends both on energy
and evolution time, and a geometric contribution, which
exclusively depends on the path traversed by the system
in parameter space. Soon after Berrys work, geometric
phases became objects of intense theoretical and experi-
mental research, the geometric phase has been found to
occur in more general circumstance: nonadiabatic [2] and
noncyclic evolutions [3], the non-Abelian form [4], and for
the states that are mixed [59] and o-diagonal geometric
phase [10].
Besides the theoretical interest, the applications of ge-
ometric phases can be found in various physical elds
such as condensed matter physics, atomic, molecular, and
optical physics, etc. [11,12]. Recently, geometric quan-
tum computation has become one of the most impor-
tant applications of geometric phase. The implementa-
tion of quantum information by geometric means holds
the merit of some built-in fault-tolerant features [13,14].
Because the quantum computer is a complicated many-
body system in nature, it is important to investigate
the geometric phase of the many-body systems which
a
e-mail: linguangyang@126.com
have subsystem-subsystem interaction. When studying
the Berry phase for a specic system, one usually cal-
culates it in a time-independent representation custom-
arily. Although it is equivalent in nature to investigate a
quantum system in dierent representations, the results
may exhibit distinct forms which describe dierent phys-
ical meanings.
In this paper, we would investigate Berry phase of
many-body system in the time-dependent representation.
The formula of Berry phase is derived in this scenario. The
result shows that the Berry phase can be decomposed into
two terms, which correspond to the time derivatives of
time-dependent basis vectors and time-dependent ampli-
tudes respectively. Using these formula, we calculated the
Berry phase for the many-spin system coupled by the XXZ
exchange interaction. How the anisotropy of exchange in-
teraction aects the Berry phase of many-spin system is
discussed. It is shown that the Berry phase consists of two
contributions which can be interpreted as the ux of a non-
quantized monopole and the ux of a Dirac ring respec-
tively. Both two contributions relate to the non-quantized
spin projective value along the magnetic eld. So, the ef-
fect of anisotropy to the Berry phase of many-spin system
can be measured by the deviation from exact quantization
of spin projection along the magnetic eld.
2 The formula of Berry phase
in the time-dependent representation
for many-body system
We consider a system of N subsystems and H =
N
i=1
H
i
is its Hilbert space. The Hamiltonian of such a collection
Page 2 of 4 Eur. Phys. J. D (2012) 66: 223
of subsystems has the form

H[R(t)] =
N

i=1

H
i
[R(t)] +
N

i=j=1
V
ij
, (1)
where

H
i
[R(t)] is the Hamiltonian of ith subsystem which
dependent on a set of parameters R, and the operator V
ij
describes the interaction between ith and jth subsystems.
The rst part

H
0
[R(t)] =
N

i=1

H
i
[R(t)] is the Hamiltonian
of the many-body system consisting of free subsystems.
The second part

H
I
=
N

i=j=1
V
ij
describes the subsystem-
subsystem interaction.
Using the instantaneous eigenstates of

H
0
[R(t)]
[
k
(R(t))) (k = 1, 2, . . .) as the basis vectors, we can ex-
press the instantaneous eigenstates of

H[R(t)] as the form
[
n
(R(t))) =

k
C
nk
(R(t))[
k
(R(t))) (2)
which satises the instantaneous equation

H[R(t)][
n
(R(t))) = E
n
(t)[
n
(R(t))). (3)
Berry has shown that when the Hamiltonian is changed
adiabatically around a loop in parameter space between
time t = 0 and t = T such that R(T) = R(0), the quan-
tum state initially prepared in the eigenstate [
n
(R(0)))
of initial Hamiltonian

H[R(0)], at the time T, will evolve
to the state
[
n
(R(T))) = exp[i
n
(T) + id
n
(T)] [
n
(R(0))) (4)
according to the Schr odinger equation. The second expo-
nential term in equation (4)
d
n
(T) =
_
T
0
E
n
(t)dt (5)
is the well-known dynamical phase. The rst exponential
term

n
(T) = i
_
T
0

n
(R(t))[

t
[
n
(R(t)))dt
= i
_
c

n
(R)[
R
[
n
(R)) dR (6)
represents Berrys discovery and is referred as Berry
phase. Here c is the loop in parameter space traced by
R.
Substituting equation (2) into this denition, and
noticing that the fact Substituting equation (2) into this
denition, and noticing that the fact
_
T
0

k
(R(t))[

t
[
k
(R(t)))dt
adiabatic
======= 0 ( k

,= k) (7)
in the adiabatic evolution [14], one can obtain the formula
of Berry phase in the time-dependent representation

n
(T) =
ave
n
(T) +
amp
n
(T). (8)
Here the rst term on the right hand side of equation (8)

ave
n
(T) = i

k
[C
nk
[
2
_
T
0

k
(R(t))[

t
[
k
(R(t)))dt (9)
is just as an average of Berry phase of dierent basis vec-
tors [
k
(R(t)))(k = 1, 2, . . .) weighted by their probabili-
ties [C
nk
[
2
.
The second term

amp
n
(T) = i

k
_
T
0
C

nk

C
nk
dt (10)
stems from the evolution of time-dependent amplitudes.
To understand the geometric meaning of this term, we
write the amplitudes as the form
C
nk
= R
nk
e
i
nk
, (11)
where R
nk
and
nk
are the modulus and argument of com-
plex amplitudes respectively.
In virtue of this form, we arrive at the conclusion that
the Berry phase can be written as

amp
n
(T) =

k
_
T
0
R
2
nk
d
nk
= 2

k
S
nk
. (12)
Here S
nk
=
1
2
_
T
0
R
2
nk
d
nk
is the area surrounded by the
closed curve traced by the amplitude C
nk
in the complex
plane. So, the second term
amp
n
(T) is equal to the twice
arithmetic summation of the areas surrounded by all am-
plitudes for the basis eigenstates.
Equations (8)(10) are the main results of this paper.
Apparently these equations not only present a formula
calculating Berry phase in the time-dependent represen-
tation, but also give a dierent understanding of Berry
phase in a new point of view. Each term in the formula of
Berry phase may give the dierent physical meanings for
specic system. In the next section, as an application of
this expression, we will study the Berry phase of many-
spin system coupled by the XXZ exchange interaction in
a time-dependent magnetic eld.
3 Berry phase of XXZ spin system
in a time-dependent magnetic eld
A classical paradigm of Berry phase comes from the spin
system. Spin system, the carrier of geometric phase shift,
is a fundamental model in designing a quantum com-
puter. Each spin-
1
2
system is a natural representation of
the qubit. The geometric phase for spin system was rst
discussed by Berry [1] and then investigated by a number
of other authors [1523]. The Berry phase of single-spin
system can be interpreted as either a half of solid angle
or the ux of a Dirac monopole-like eld in the parame-
ter space [1]. Recently, the study of geometric phases has
generalized to the case of a pair of spin system, which in-
clude general evolution without interaction (xed entan-
glement) [1719] and spins with a specic coupling pre-
cessing in magnetic eld [2023].
Eur. Phys. J. D (2012) 66: 223 Page 3 of 4
We consider a system which consists of N spins with
spin quantum number
1
2
. The spin-spin coupling is de-
scribed by XXZ exchange interaction. Both spins are
driven by a time-dependent magnetic eld. The total
Hamiltonian takes the form

H(t) =
1
2

i
B(t)
i
+J

i=j=1
_
1
2
(
ix

jx
+
iy

jy
) +
1 +
2

iz

jz
_
,
(13)
where is the Bohr magneton,
j
= (
jx
,
jy
,
jz
) is the
vector Pauli operator of the subsystem j(j = 1, . . . , N).
The parameter J characterizes the strength of spin-spin
interaction, and (1 1) measures the anisotropy
between intensity of coupling in the XY plane and that
of along z-direction. It is well known that the XXZ model
covers various spin-spin interaction [24]. In particular, the
Ising-type interaction is obtained for = 1, the XX type
is for = 1, and isotropic Heisenberg-type interaction
corresponds to = 0. The magnetic eld is chosen as
B(t) = B
0
n(t), where n(t) = (sin cos , sin sin , cos )
denotes an unit vector. The magnetic eld acts as an ex-
ternal control parameter, as its direction and magnitude
can be experimentally altered. In the present paper, the
magnitude B
0
and the azimuthal angle keep constant
for simplicity.
Introducing the total spin operator

S =
1
2
N

i=1

i
, (14)
then the Hamiltonian can be written as

H(t) = B(t)

S + 2JS
2
z
+J(1 )S
2
+
3
4
NJ
1
4
J.
(15)
Noticing that the Hamiltonian

H(t) commutes with the
total spin operator S
2
. The total spin quantum number s
remains good quantum number. The total Hilbert space
H can be expressed as the direct summation subspaces
H
s
describing spin-s (s = s
min
, s
min
+1, . . . , s
max
), where
s
min
=
_
0, N is even,
1
2
, N is odd,
s
max
=
N
2
. (16)
In the subspace H
s
(dimH
s
= 2s + 1), we rewrite the
Hamiltonian as

H[n(t)] = n(t)

S + 2g

S
2
z
(17)
in the units of B
0
. Here we omit the constant term J(1
)S
2
+
3
4
NJ
1
4
J in equation (15). g =
J
B0
is rescaled
anisotropic constant which describes the ratio of the
anisotropic coupling to the magnetic eld.
First, let us consider the case of vanishing anisotropy
characterized by g = 0. In this case, the Hamiltonian of
system reduces to

H[n(t)] = n(t)

S which describes a
single spin in the time-dependent magnetic eld. So Berry
phase may be expressed in terms of the total spin projec-
tion quantum number m (m = s, s + 1, . . . , s 1, s)
along the magnetic eld and the solid angle = 2(1
cos ) enclosed in parameter space, i.e.,
m
(T) = 2m(1
cos ). The result shows that the isotropic exchange inter-
action has no eect on the Berry phase of spin system.
This is because the isotropic Heisenberg exchange inter-
action can be regarded as a constant in subspace H
s
. It
only brings the shift of energy levels, but does not aect
the form of instantaneous eigenstate.
For g ,= 0, we can rewrite the Hamiltonian equa-
tion (17) in the basis spanned by the instantaneous eigen-
states of

H
0
[n(t)] = n(t)

S. The instantaneous eigen-
states of n(t)

S are well-known and can be expressed
as [15]
[n, k) =

U(, )[s, k) (k = s, s+1, . . . , s1, s). (18)
Here [s, k) are eigenstates of S
2
and S
z
satisfying

S
2
[s, k) = s(s + 1)[s, k),

S
z
[s, k) = k[s, k),

[s, k) = [(s k)(s k + 1)]

1/2
[s, k 1), (19)
and the unitary transformation

U(, ) = exp
_

2
_
e
i

S
+
+e
i

S

_
_
, (20)
where

S

= (

S
x
i

S
y
) are spin raising and lowering op-
erators.
Using the commutation relations of spin operators
[

S
+
,

S

] = 2

S
z
and [

S
z
,

S

] =

, we can write the

equations

S
z

U = cos

S
z

1
2
sin
_
e
i

S
+
+ e
i

S

_
, (21)

U = e
i
_
sin

S
z
+e
i
cos
2

2

S

e
i
sin
2

2

S

_
.
(22)
In virtue of equations (19)(22), the matrix elements
of Hamiltonian (17) in the basis [n, k), k = s, s +
1, . . . , s can be expressed as
H
kk
= H

k
= n, k[

H[n(t)][n, k

)
=
_

_
k +g[
2
k
sin
2
+k
2
cos
2
], k

= k,
g(2k + 1)
k+1
sin cos e
i
, k

= k + 1,
1
2
g
k+1

k+2
sin
2
e
i2
, k

= k + 2,
0, otherwise.
(23)
Here
k
= [(s +k)(s k + 1)]
1/2
.
The instantaneous eigenstates can be expanded as
[
n
) =
s

k=s
C
k
n
(, , g)[n, k). (24)
Page 4 of 4 Eur. Phys. J. D (2012) 66: 223
By virtue of the feature of matrix elements of
Hamiltonian (23), it is easy to see that the relation be-
tween the neighboring complex amplitudes:
C
k+1
n
C
k
n
= f
k
n
(, g)e
i
, (25)
where the function f
k
n
(, g) is real function.
So the eigenstates for this system can be written as:
[
n
) =
s

k=s
D
k
n
(, g)e
ik
[n, k), (26)
where D
k
n
(, g) (k = s, s + 1, . . . , s 1, s) are
real function and satisfy the normalized condition
s

k=s
[D
k
n
(, g)[
2
= 1.
With the help of the equation
i

U =

(1 cos )

S
z

1
2

sin
_
e
i

S
+
+ e
i

S

_
,
(27)
we can obtain two contributions of Berry phase

ave
n
= m
n
, (28)
and

amp
n
= 2 m
n
. (29)
Here m
n
=
s

k=s
k[D
k
n
(, g)[
2
is just the average projec-
tive value of the total spin along the magnetic eld and
= 2(1 cos ) is the solid angle traced by n(t) in
parameter space. The rst contribution of Berry phase

ave
n
(T) = m
n
is consistent with the form of Berry
phase for the many-spin system with isotropic exchange
interaction. But the spin projective values in present
case no longer take integer or half-integer due to the
anisotropy of interaction. In other words, the spin pro-
jective values is not quantized but continuous and (, g)-
dependent. We can interpret this term as the ux of Dirac
monopole located the origin in the parameter space. Nev-
ertheless, the strength of monopole is (, g)-dependent and
non-quantized.
Another contribution of Berry phase due to anisotropy
of interaction is

amp
n
(T) = 2 m
n
.
This term is time-independent and can be interpreted as
the ux of a Dirac string carrying the non-quantized ux
along the z-axis. In the case of without anisotropy, this
term can be neglected because it equals to multiple of
2. But once the interaction between spins deviates the
isotropy, this additional term will become nontrivial. No-
tice that both two terms are determined the non-quantized
spin projective values along the direction of magnetic eld,
so the deviation from exact quantization can be regard as
the measure of eect of anisotropy to the Berry phase of
many-spin system.
4 Conclusions
In summary, we have investigated the Berry phase of
many-body system in the time-dependent representation.
The formula of Berry phase of many-body system calcu-
lating in the time-dependent representation is derived. In
this scenario, the Berry phase can be decomposed into
two terms, which have dierent physical meanings respec-
tively. Using these formula, we calculated the Berry phase
for the many-spin system coupled by the XXZ exchange
interaction. How the anisotropy of exchange interaction
aects the Berry phase of many-spin system is discussed.
It is shown that the Berry phase consists of two contribu-
tions which can be interpreted as the ux of a nonquan-
tized monopole and the ux of a Dirac ring respectively.
The eect of anisotropy to the Berry phase of many-spin
system can be measured by the deviation from exact quan-
tization. We expect that our method may be used to study
other systems in this direction.
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China under Grant Nos. 11075013 and 10974016.
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