1. Introduction
A form-invariant solution is generated from a transformation that can maintain the form of the solution to an equation in the original untransformed space but with new variables. In recent years, there has been interest in applying it to design novel devices (e.g., [
1,
2]). A way to obtain the solution is through conformal mapping. For a 2D system, a suitable mapping not only produces the solution but also offers us freedom to inspect the system’s response when all the variables execute the conformal deformation. Inspired by a conformal monopole and surface revealed from an exploration of the form-invariant solution to the charge-monopole system [
3], the purpose of this paper is to report an application of the conformal deformation and the quantization condition of the pole strength to control the measurement, evolution path of the Berry phase, and resonant frequency of a spin in the 2D spherical parameter space.
This paper is arranged as follows: In
Section 2, starting with the Hamiltonian of an electron’s spin coupling to a conformal vector in the parameter space, the eigenstates are shown to have the form-invariant representation of the common spinor. The new representation possesses an additional degree of freedom depicted by the conformal index that can be used to tune the outcome of the measurement of the spin along the specific axes. In
Section 3, the Berry phase of the spinor generated by an adiabatic transportation of the spin along the conformal coordinate paths is evaluated. It is found that the phase is tunable by the index at the different latitude of the Bloch sphere. A rotating magnetic field is suggested to construct the conformal vector and obtain the Berry phase. In
Section 4, the source of the Berry phase is investigated. We show that the phase is established by going around the conformal monopole in the parameter space. In
Section 5, we present the dual fields of the dual conformal monopole, and show that the strengths of the pole and its dual partner are dictated by the reciprocally quantized conformal index.
Section 6 is used to discuss the resonant phenomenon of the spin on the conformal parameter surface. The resonant frequency associated with the conformal deformation is given. Finally, a conclusion and two remarks are made in the
Section 7.
2. Form-Invariant Representation of a Spinor
Instead of the common unit vector
,
and
, in the parameter space used to describe a physical field, we adopt the conformal unit vector
to discuss the behavior of a spin coupled to a field by the Hamiltonian
where
is the vector formed by the Pauli matrices. The definition of the conformal variables
,
is given by the transformation [
3]
where
a is a constant, and can be regarded as a real number.
Figure 1 and
Figure 2 show the graphs of
and
for some values of
a. They are periodic functions with the range
and
except for the trivial case
for the latter. The locations of the extreme values of these functions coincide with those given by
and
. An interesting feature of the function is that
(
) is an anti-symmetric (symmetric) function with respect to the negative value of
a. The line element for the surface can be expressed as
where
and
is the line element of the common 2D unit sphere
. Equation (
2) exhibits that the surface with the conformal factor
is conformal to
. Hereafter we shall use
to label the conformal surface. Since the deformation of
is depicted by
a, it will be referred to as the conformal index.
It is known that a spin state is described by the spinor
which can be obtained by evaluating the solution of the Schrödinger equation
with
being the eigenvalue. The condition of having a non-trivial solution to the equation is determined by the characteristic equation
It gives
and the corresponding normalized spinors,
and
They maintain the form-invariance of the familiar spinors. Nevertheless, the conformal degree of freedom allows us to tune the measurement of the spin along the different directions by the index
a. For instance, the measurements along the positive and negative
z directions of spin for an electron with the spin state
give the amplitudes
and
where
and
are the eigenstates corresponding to the eigenvalues
and
of the Pauli matrix
. Therefore, the probabilities of the spin in the measurements along the
directions are respectively given by
and
They are independent of
. The graphs in
Figure 3 show the probability
which is manipulable by the index
a, and the probabilities corresponding to
a and
are complementary. This implies that one can control the probability through the modulation of the index
a. The spin orientation of a prepared state
in the laboratory will almost definitely collapse to the
z (negative
z) direction in a measurement when the variable
(
) if the index value
. The average of the two measurements above is
which can also be tuned by the index. Analogously, the probabilities of the spin state
to appear in the
, and
directions are given by
and
They retain the form-invariance to the common representation. The graphs in
Figure 4 show the probability
of the state
appearing in the positive
x direction, where we choose
to inspect the outcome. Owing to the conformal freedom, the outcome of a measurement for
can be realized by the measurement of
with the negative index
, and vice versa.
3. Controlling the Evolution Path of the Berry Phase
In this section, we first show that the Berry phase of the spin along the conformal coordinate paths depends on the deformation, and the accumulating process of the phase is tunable by the conformal index. Then, a physical realization of the control through a time-dependent rotational magnetic field is suggested. The Berry phase for a normalized, non-degenerate eigenstate
is defined by (e.g., [
4,
5])
which characterizes the time evolution of the state when the parameter
in the Hamiltonian
changes along a closed path
with
in the parameter space, i.e., the evolution state is given by
where
is the energy corresponding to the instant state
that satisfies the Schrödinger equation
Berry pointed out that the phase can be non-integrable (i.e., path-dependent) [
4]. Thus, there is an interference effect that is physically observable. Hereafter in the article, we shall refer to
as the Berry potential. For our consideration of the form-invariant spinors, the Berry potential is given by
The corresponding Berry phase is
Figure 5 shows the variation of the phase at the different latitudes on the Bloch sphere. The evolution path at a specific
can be altered by the index
a. We see that the phase with
in the domain
is complementary to
in
, and the evolution processes of the phase for
are allowed drastic changes around
which show up different interference patterns. For the other spinor with eigenvalue
, we have the Berry potential
The corresponding Berry phase is
This indicates that
. Along the closed path of
constant, it is easy to show that
. Thus, the Berry phase
. In the following, let us discuss the gauge freedom of the Berry potential
. We rename the state in (
5) as
where the Cartesian coordinate system defined by the conformal variables
is introduced in the parameter space. It is thus well-defined in the north conformal hemisphere. The corresponding Berry potential is
Another normalized representation of the state
can be taken as
It has singularity at the north pole, and good behavior in the south conformal hemisphere. Thus, the conformal deformation of parameters retains the singular behavior of the common spinor (e.g., [
5,
6]). Two representations in (
22) and (
25) differ by a gauge transformation, i.e.,
. The corresponding Berry potential of the state
is
Both potentials give the same electromagnetic tensor
The transformation function that associates
with
can be found through the right hand side of the first equality in the equation. It implies that
. Thus, the function
satisfies
, and it has the general solution
. It is seen that the potential and the induced tensor both depend on the index
a that offers us the degree of freedom to control the fields. The phase
can also be obtained by the integral
over the conformal surface bounded by the closed path
C through Stoke’s theorem.
As a physical realization of the conformal model, the unit vector of the sphere
is formulated by the following rotational vector
i.e., choose
. The values of
and
on the conformal sphere
can be decided by the formulas in Equation (
1) as soon as the index value
a is chosen, and the unit vector on
is given by
with
, and
. To obtain the Berry phase (
19), one can consider the Hamiltonian of a spin with magnetic moment
coupling to the rotational magnetic field
,
The frequency
is given by
where
is the frequency for the parameters without deformation. If there exists an interval of
that satisfies the ratio
, we shall have
and the required conformal deformation.
Figure 6 shows that there always exists an interval around
satisfying
. It is easy to use the determinant
to find the eigenvalues
, and the corresponding normalized eigenvectors
for
, and
for
. Compared with (
5) and (
6), the reverse suffix is due to the minus sign of the Hamiltonian for the electron’s magnetic moment. Since
, one finds that the Berry potential
and the corresponding Berry phase is
The potential of
is
and the phase is
The phases are what we want to seek. However, in this formulation of the rotational magnetic field, they are true only in the interval of satisfying .
4. The Source of the Path-Tunable Berry Phase: The Conformal Monopole
A non-integrable phase is often rooted in a singularity in the parameter space (e.g., [
4,
7]). The source of the non-integrability of the Berry phase in (
19) and (
21) is investigated in this section. We need to calculate the Berry potential of
with respect to the whole parameter space, then the corresponding field strength will reveal the type of singularity at the origin. For this, let us set up a Cartesian coordinate system in the parameter space, and calculate the Berry potential
first. Since
is expressed as the conformal coordinates
, it is convenient to decompose the operator
in the spherical coordinate system
With
and
one finds the
x component of the Berry potential
In vector form, the components of the Berry potential can be combined to become
in the spherical coordinates, where the coupling strength
g of the potential is defined to be
The corresponding magnetic field is given by the curl operation
. It yields
where
is the radial unit vector. This is the magnetic field produced by the conformal monopole located at the origin of the coordinates
revealed by the recent investigation [
3]. The field satisfies the Gauss law of summing over the conformal surface. It can be shown by considering the surface integral of the field over
:
where
was used to obtain the second equality, and we have used
to label the surface element of
. The final equality is the Gauss law for a pole with the coupling strength of
over the conformal surface. The index
a controls the conformal deformation. Thus, it seems that the deformation is continuous with the variation of
a along the real line. However, the physical condition of the gauge equivalence of the Berry potential under gauge transformation requires that the index can only be an integer. The proof is as follows: The magnetic field (
44) produced by the curl operation
can also be produced through
The potentials
and
are only different by a gauge transformation. It is known that the global formulation of any gauge field is through the non-integrable phase factor
[
8,
9]. Consider the closed contour integral in the parameter space
Since
and
produce the same magnetic field, to have no physically observable effects differentiating them the phase needs to be
positive integer. We thus have the restriction
Here
n (
) is for the positive (negative) monopole. A monopole with the quantized strength
was pointed out by Dirac [
8]. The presented discussion shows that the quantization rule is also true for a more general monopole field.
5. The Dual Fields of the Dual Conformal Monopole
Due to the symmetric appearance of the Berry potential (
42), it is not difficult to reveal that the dual form of the potential
is
where the coupling constant
and
is the unit vector in the direction of increasing
that can be decomposed in the directions of the unit vectors
and
of the Cartesian coordinate system defined in (
23) as
. The magnetic field produced by the dual potential is then given by
It is produced by a dual magnetic pole at the origin of the untransformed parameter space. Consider the surface integral over the conformal surface
where the equality
was introduced to get to the second equality and the surface element
. The final equality reveals that the field
is produced by a magnetic monopole with strength
at the origin of
. Again, the allowed values of
can be determined by the single-valued condition of the potential under the gauge transformation. It is easy to find the second dual potential that produces the same
,
Consider the non-integrable phase factor along any closed curve
C in the conformal parameter space
Since the electromagnetic effect of
and
is the same, the phase can only be
, i.e., the quantization of the strength of the dual conformal monopole is
Here is for the positive (negative) dual pole. However, unlike the quantization condition of the conformal monopole, the rule for the dual pole violates the single-valued condition of the form-invariant spinor when . For this reason, only can be applied to tune the evolution path.
6. Resonant Frequency on the Conformal Parameter Surface
The quantum resonance of the two-level model is a typical phenomenon in the actual systems. The effects of the external field
with the conformal variables on the resonance of the spin is investigated here. Without loss of generality, the Hamiltonian is simply taken as
such that the spinor must satisfy the Schrödinger equation
The equation can be solved exactly (e.g., [
10,
11]). To make it easier for readers to access the solution, we take a little space here to sketch the process. Simply calling
,
,
, and
with
turns the equation into
The off-diagonal terms correspond to the driving force of the quantum transition. In the situation without the off-diagonal terms, the solution of the steady state is obviously given by
where
and
are constant. Assume that in the presence of the driving force the solution is given by
Let
(
) be the high (low) energy level. If the initial condition is assumed to be
and
, one can find the solution
where
is the Rabi frequency in the magnetic field
in which
with
, the nature frequency of the system without the disturbance of the driving force. The probability of a transition from the low energy to high energy level during the time interval
is given by
and the probability from high to low level is
They maintain the appearance of the transition probability for the two-level system. However, the expression here contains the information of the conformal deformation of the parameters. The condition of resonance is given by
which results in
and
The Rabi’s resonant frequency is now
Put
, which represents the resonant frequency in the situation of the parameters without deformation. We then have
where the index
a can only be an integer due to the requirement of the single-valued condition of the Hamilton operator.
Figure 7 exhibits the ratio of the resonant frequencies. There are three interesting features. (i) The resonant frequency basically decreases with the increase of the index
n over most of the domain of
, and the frequency is altered at the specific latitude
according to the integer
n. (ii) Any value of
can be achieved by an arbitrary integer. Nevertheless, the allowed resonant domain of
is controlled by
n. (iii) The resonant frequency is very sensitive to the conformal deformation. The resonance can only happen around
when the index comes to
. This means that the resonance only occurs in the systems with tiny level spacing when the field
is constructed with a large index
n.
7. Conclusions
In this paper, we discuss the influences of the conformal deformation of the spherical parameters on the measurement, Berry phase, and resonance of a spin. It is shown that the physical deformations, depicted by the integer index , can be used to control the measurement of the spinor, the evolution path of the Berry phase on the Bloch sphere, and the resonant frequency. The path-tunable Berry phase is rooted in a conformal monopole that possesses the field with non-isotropic characteristic determined by the index . Two observations worth noticing are stated as follows:
(a) The index
controls the quantum-to-classical behavior of the measurement outcome of spin orientation. The spinor behaves as an ideal binary switch when the index
is large enough.
Figure 8 shows the measurement of the spinor along the
z direction when the index becomes
. The outcome exhibits a perfect classical switch behavior. On the other hand, at the beginning value of the index,
, the measurement exhibits an entirely stochastic property of the quantum switch. Similar correspondences can also be found in the measurements of the
x and
y directions. However, the classical binary property mostly appears around
.
(b) The resonant frequency for a more general parameter surface is also given by
as (
67). For instance, let us consider the resonance on the conformal ellipsoidal surface. The line element of the undeformed surface reads
where
c and
are constants that control the shape of the surface, and the ranges of the variables
, and
. Assume that the line element of the form-invariant deformation of the surface is given by
where
,
, and
and
are constants. The conformal condition of the deformation is determined by
Put
. It can be shown that the relation between
and
can be established by the Appell series
. There thus exists a conformal deformation leading to the expression (
69). For our purpose of the proof of the form of
, learning (
70) is enough. Now the components of the magnetic field
are modulated to form the conformal ellipsoidal surface
The evolution of the spin in the field must satisfy the Schrödinger equation
The resonant frequency has the expression
Using (
70) gives the relation
where
, and the conformal index taken as an integer is due to the single-valued condition about the
variable. Obviously, a parameter surface with spherical symmetry with respect to
would have the same conclusion.