Duality in adiabatic level crossing: Quantum coherence and complete reflection

A field dependent su(2) gauge transformation connects between the adiabatic and diabatic pictures in the (Landau-Zener-Stueckelberg) level crossing problem. It is pointed out that weak and strong level crossing interactions are interchanged under this transformation, and thus realizing a naive strong and weak duality. A reliable perturbation theory is thus formulated in the both limits of weak and strong interactions. Main characteristics of the level crossing phenomena such as the Landau-Zener formula including its numerical coefficient are well-described by simple perturbation theory without referring to Stokes phenomena. We also show that quantum coherence in a double well potential is generally suppressed by the effect of level crossing, which is analogous to the effect of Ohmic dissipation on quantum coherence. 03.65.-w, 03.65.Sq, 31.15.-p, 32.80.Bx Typeset using REVTEX 1