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I have already read through the answers here.

So I understand that if the Hamiltonians commute, then they have the same eigenstates but not necessarily the same energy eigenvalues.

To formulate my question (skip to last paragraph if you prefer), we have the Hamiltonian $H_B$ with known lowest energy eigenstate $|\psi_{B_0}\rangle$ and corresponding energy eigenvalue $E_{B_0}$. Then our time-depenent Hamiltonian is

$$ H(t) = (1-\alpha(t))H_B + \alpha(t) H_C $$

where $H_C$ is the problem Hamiltonian with lowest energy eigenstate $|\psi_{C_0}\rangle$ and corresponding energy eigenvalue $E_{C_0}$, and $\alpha \in [0,1]$ is a time varying function that gradually moves from $0$ to $1$.

As I understand, if $H_C$ and $H_B$ don't commute, then $|\psi_{B_0}\rangle$ is an eigenstate of both of them, and therefore also of $H$. So the state won't evolve out of $|\psi_{B_0}\rangle$, and we aren't guaranteed that it is equal to $|\psi_{C_0}\rangle$. Another way people state it, which to me feels equivalent, is that there will be a crossover of energy bands and this degeneracy will cause the adiabatic speed limit to go to 0.

Here's my question. As I said we aren't guaranteed that $|\psi_{B_0}\rangle = |\psi_{C_0}\rangle$. But does that mean that we are sure $|\psi_{B_0}\rangle \neq |\psi_{C_0}\rangle$? Are there situations where $H_C$ and $H_B$ commute and we can know in advance that $|\psi_{B_0}\rangle = |\psi_{C_0}\rangle$ and can do QAA anyway?

Alexander Soare
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