dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaThomas Rotation and Polarised Light: A non-Abelian Geometric Phase in Optics
| Authors | Joseph Samuel, Supurna Sinha |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/9705023 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9705023 |
Abstract
We describe a non-Abelian Berry phase in polarisation optics, suggested by an analogy due to Nityananda between boosts in special relativity and the effect of elliptic dichroism on polarised light. The analogy permits a simple optical realization of the non-Abelian gauge field describing Thomas rotation. We also show how Thomas rotation can be understood geometrically on the Poincar\'{e} sphere in terms of the Pancharatnam phase.
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"abstract": "We describe a non-Abelian Berry phase in polarisation optics, suggested by an\nanalogy due to Nityananda between boosts in special relativity and the effect\nof elliptic dichroism on polarised light. The analogy permits a simple optical\nrealization of the non-Abelian gauge field describing Thomas rotation. We also\nshow how Thomas rotation can be understood geometrically on the Poincar\\\u0027{e}\nsphere in terms of the Pancharatnam phase.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/9705023",
"authors": [
"Joseph Samuel",
"Supurna Sinha"
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"title": "Thomas Rotation and Polarised Light: A non-Abelian Geometric Phase in Optics",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9705023"
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