Quantum Geometric Phase between Orthogonal States

Abstract

We show that the geometric phase between any two states, including orthogonal states, can be extracted and measured using the notion of projective measurement, and we show that a topological number can be extracted in the geometric phase change in an infinitesimal loop near an orthogonal state. Also, the Pancharatnam phase change during the passage through an orthogonal state is shown to be either pi or zero (mod 2pi). All the off-diagonal geometric phases can be obtained from the projective geometric phase calculated with our generalized connection.