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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 86 » Issue 3
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 369–372 (2001)

Geometric Phase of Three-Level Systems in Interferometry

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Barry C. Sanders1, Hubert de Guise1,2, Stephen D. Bartlett1, and Weiping Zhang1
1Department of Physics, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia
2Centre de Recherche Mathématique, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128-A, Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7, Canada

Received 11 April 2000; revised 28 August 2000; published in the issue dated 15 January 2001

We present the first scheme for producing and measuring an Abelian geometric phase shift in a three-level system where states are invariant under a non-Abelian group. In contrast to existing experiments and proposals for experiments, based on U(1)-invariant states, our scheme geodesically evolves U(2)-invariant states in a four-dimensional SU(3)/U(2) space and is physically realized via a three-channel optical interferometer.

© 2001 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.369
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.369
PACS:
03.65.Ta, 02.20.Sv, 03.65.Fd, 42.50.Du
 
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