  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.
Angular momentum shift within the light beam (OAM) has exact equivalence with
the angular momentum holonomy associated with the geometric phase consistent
with our conjecture.
