Spin bath interaction effects on the geometric phase

We calculate the geometric phase of a spin-1/2 particle coupled to an external environment comprising N spin-1/2 particle in the framework of open quantum systems. We analyze the decoherence factor and the deviation of the geometric phase under a nonunitary evolution from the one gained under an unitary one. We show the dependence upon the system's and bath's parameter and analyze the range of validity of the perturbative approximation. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results.