Effective Theory of Nonadiabatic Quantum Evolution Based on the Quantum Geometric Tensor

We study the role of the quantum geometric tensor (QGT) in the evolution of two-band quantum systems. We show that all its components play an important role on the extra phase acquired by a spinor and on the trajectory of an accelerated wave packet in any realistic finite-duration experiment. While the adiabatic phase is determined by the Berry curvature (the imaginary part of the tensor), the nonadiabaticity is determined by the quantum metric (the real part of the tensor). We derive, for geodesic trajectories (corresponding to acceleration from zero initial velocity), the semiclassical equations of motion with nonadiabatic corrections. The particular case of a planar microcavity in the strong coupling regime allows us to extract the QGT components by direct light polarization measurements and to check their effects on the quantum evolution.