Adiabatic following for a three-state quantum system

Adiabatic time-evolution - found in various forms of adiabatic following and adiabatic passage - is often advantageous for controlled manipulation of quantum systems due to its insensitivity to deviations in the pulse shapes and timings. In this paper we discuss controlled adiabatic evolution of a three-state quantum system, a natural advance to the widespread use of two-state systems in numerous contemporary applications. We discuss, and illustrate, not only possibilities for population transfer but also for creating, with prescribed relative phase, 50:50 superpositions of two Zeeman sublevels in a letter-vee coupling linkage.