Non-quantized Dirac monopoles and strings in the Berry phase of anisotropic spin systems
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
2009-11-10 v2 Quantum Physics
Abstract
The Berry phase of an anisotropic spin system that is adiabatically rotated along a closed circuit C is investigated. It is shown that the Berry phase consists of two contributions: (i) a geometric contribution which can be interpreted as the flux through C of a non-quantized Dirac monopole, and (ii) a topological contribution which can be interpreted as the flux through C of a Dirac string carrying a non-quantized flux, i.e., a spin analogue of the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Various experimental consequences of this novel effect are discussed.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0404616,
title = {Non-quantized Dirac monopoles and strings in the Berry phase of anisotropic spin systems},
author = {Patrick Bruno},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0404616},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 3 figures (RevTeX + eps); v2 (revised paper): 4 pages, 4 figures