Berry phase in magnetic systems with point perturbations. (Q1589701)

The authors investigate the Berry phase that appears when a two-dimensional charged particle, interacting with a magnetic field (orthogonal to the plane), moves adiabatically along a loop. The expression for the phase is derived under some conditions on the field several examples (homogeneous field, a magnetic whisker, etc.) are considered. The paper also contains a discussion of the lowest Landau level in this setting. An explicit example of the Wilczek-Zee phase for an infinitely degenerated eigenvalue is obtained.