English

Nonadiabatic Origin of Quantum-Metric Effects via Momentum-Space Metric Tensor

Materials Science 2026-03-26 v3 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We reveal a fundamental geometric structure of momentum space arising from the nonadiabatic evolution of Bloch electrons. By extending semiclassical wave packet theory to incorporate nonadiabatic effects, we introduce a momentum-space metric tensor -- the nonadiabatic metric. This metric gives rise to two velocity corrections, dubbed geometric and geodesic velocities, providing a unified and intuitive framework for understanding nonlinear and nonadiabatic transport phenomena beyond Berry phase effects. The geometric velocity is related to the nonadiabatic metric itself, whereas the geodesic velocity is a Christoffel symbol of the nonadiabatic metric. As the nonadiabatic metric is related to the energy-gap renormalized quantum metric, it unifies the broad quantum metric effects in electronic responses. When the nonadiabatic metric is constant, it reduces to an effective mass, modifying flat-band electron dynamics in confining potentials. In a flat Chern band with harmonic attractive interactions, the two-body wave functions mirror the Landau-level wave functions on a torus. Furthermore, we show that the nonadiabatic metric endows momentum space with a curved geometry, recasting wave packet dynamics as forced geodesic motion.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.06439,
  title  = {Nonadiabatic Origin of Quantum-Metric Effects via Momentum-Space Metric Tensor},
  author = {Yafei Ren},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.06439},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

8 pages, 3 figures; accepted version