Geometric (Berry) phases in neutron molecular spectroscopy

A theory of neutron scattering by nuclei in a molecule, accompanied by an electronic transition, is formulated with attention to gauge potentials and geometric phases in the Born-Oppenheimer scheme. Non-degenerate and nearly degenerate electronic levels are considered. For nearly degenerate levels it is shown that, the cross-section is free of the singular structure which characterizes the corresponding gauge potential for the phase, and much larger than for well separated electronic states. (author)