  A new definition and interpretation of geometric phase for mixed state cyclic
unitary evolution in quantum mechanics are presented. The pure state case is
formulated in a framework involving three selected Principal Fibre Bundles, and
the well known Kostant-Kirillov-Souriau symplectic structure on (co) adjoint
orbits associated with Lie groups. It is shown that this framework generalises
in a natural and simple manner to the mixed state case. For simplicity, only
the case of rank two mixed state density matrices is considered in detail. The
extensions of the ideas of Null Phase Curves and Pancharatnam lifts from pure
to mixed states are also presented.
