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Geometric Phase, Curvature, and the Monodromy Group

The geometric phase requires the multivaluedness of solutions to Fuchsian second-order equations. The angle, or its complement, is given by half the area of a spherical triangle in the case of three singular points, or half the area of a lune in the case of two singular points. Both are fundamental regions where the automorphic function takes a value only once, and a linear-fractional transformation tessellates the plane in replicas of the fundamental region. The condition that the homologues of the poles, representing vertices, be angles places restrictions on quantum numbers which are no longer integers, for, otherwise, the phase factors would become unity. Restriction must be made to regular singular points for only then will solutions to the differential equation be rational functions so that the covering group will be cyclic and the covering space be a "spiral staircase". Many of the equations of mathematical physics, with essential singularities, become Fuchsian differential equations, with regular singularities, at zero kinetic energy. Examples of geometric phase include the phasor, the Pancharatnam phase of beams of polarized light in different states, the Aharanov-Bohm phase, and angular momentum with centripetal "attraction". In the latter example, the phase is one-half the area of the lune, which disappears when the pole at infinity becomes an essential singularity thereby recovering the Schrödinger equation. The behavior of an automorphic function at a limit point on the boundary is analogous to the confluence of two regular singularities in a linear second-order differential equation to produce an essential singularity at infinity.