Topological defects, geometric phases, and the angular momentum of light

Recent reports on the intriguing features of vector vortex bearing beams are analyzed using geometric phases in optics. It is argued that the spin redirection phase induced circular birefringence is the origin of topological phase singularities arising in the inhomogeneous polarization patterns. A unified picture of recent results is presented based on this proposition. Orbital angular momentum (OAM) shift within the light beam has exact equivalence with the angular momentum holonomy associated with the geometric phase consistent with our conjecture.