The Hilbert-Space Structure of Non-Hermitian Theories with Real Spectra

We investigate the quantum-mechanical interpretation of models with non-Hermitian Hamiltonians and real spectra. After describing a general framework to reformulate such models in terms of Hermitian Hamiltonians defined on the Hilbert space L ₂(-, ), we discuss the significance of the algebra of physical observables.     

Filling up complex spectral regions through non-Hermitian disordered chains

Eigenspectra that fill regions in the complex plane have been intriguing to many, inspiring research from random matrix theory to esoteric semi-infinite bounded non-Hermitian lattices. In this work, we propose a simple and robust ansatz for constructing models whose eigenspectra fill up generic prescribed regions. Our approach utilizes specially designed non-Hermitian random couplings that allow the co-existence of eigenstates with a continuum of localization lengths, mathematically emulating the effects of semi-infinite boundaries. While some of these couplings are necessarily long-ranged, they are still far more local than what is possible with known random matrix ensembles. Our ansatz can be feasibly implemented in physical platforms such as classical and quantum circuits, and harbors very high tolerance to imperfections due to its stochastic nature.     

Exact solutions of non-Hermitian chains with asymmetric long-range hopping under specific boundary conditions

We study the one-dimensional general non-Hermitian models with asymmetric long-range hopping and explore how to analytically solve the systems under some specific boundary conditions.Although the introduction of long-range hopping terms prevents us from finding analytical solutions for arbitrary boundary parameters,we identify the existence of exact solutions when the boundary parameters fulfill some constraint relations,which give the specific boundary conditions.Our analytical results show that the wave functions take simple forms and are independent of hopping range,while the eigenvalue spectra display rich model-dependent structures.Particularly,we find the existence of a special point coined as pseudo-periodic boundary condition,for which the eigenvalues are the same as those of the periodical system when the hopping parameters fulfill certain conditions,whereas the eigenstates display the non-Hermitian skin effect.     

Non-Hermitian Weyl semimetals: Non-Hermitian skin effect and non-Bloch bulk-boundary correspondence

We investigate novel features of three-dimensional non-Hermitian Weyl semimetals,paying special attention to the unconventional bulk-boundary correspondence.We use the non-Bloch Chern numbers as the tool to obtain the topological phase diagram,which is also confirmed by the energy spectra from our numerical results.It is shown that,in sharp contrast to Hermitian systems,the conventional(Bloch)bulk-boundary correspondence breaks down in non-Hermitian topological semimetals,which is caused by the non-Hermitian skin effect.We establish the non-Bloch bulk-boundary correspondence for non-Hermitian Weyl semimetals:the topological edge modes are determined by the non-Bloch Chern number of the bulk bands.Moreover,these topological edge modes can manifest as the unidirectional edge motion,and their signatures are consistent with the non-Bloch bulk-boundary correspondence.Our work establishes the non-Bloch bulk-boundary correspondence for non-Hermitian topological semimetals.     

Non-Hermitian systems of Euclidean Lie algebraic type with real energy spectra

We study several classes of non-Hermitian Hamiltonian systems, which can be expressed in terms of bilinear combinations of Euclidean–Lie algebraic generators. The classes are distinguished by different versions of antilinear (PT)-symmetries exhibiting various types of qualitative behaviour. On the basis of explicitly computed non-perturbative Dyson maps we construct metric operators, isospectral Hermitian counterparts for which we solve the corresponding time-independent Schrödinger equation for specific choices of the coupling constants. In these cases general analytical expressions for the solutions are obtained in the form of Mathieu functions, which we analyze numerically to obtain the corresponding energy spectra. We identify regions in the parameter space for which the corresponding spectra are entirely real and also domains where the PT symmetry is spontaneously broken and sometimes also regained at exceptional points. In some cases it is shown explicitly how the threshold region from real to complex spectra is characterized by the breakdown of the Dyson maps or the metric operator. We establish the explicit relationship to models currently under investigation in the context of beam dynamics in optical lattices.     

Special modes induced by inter-chain coupling in a non-Hermitian ladder system

We explore some interesting phenomena in a simple non-Hermitian ladder system. Special modes with energy eigenvalues closely related to the inter-chain-coupling strength appear in the non-Hermitian ladder system. We show that a phase transition occurs whereby special modes with pure real eigenvalues can switch to special modes with pure imaginary eigenvalues, when the inter-chain-coupling strength changes from symmetric to asymmetric. We find that the density profiles of all the special modes are completely identical under certain conditions, even if the inter-chain-coupling strength is added into the non-Hermitian ladder system in different ways. Moreover, we also demonstrate that the different inter-chain couplings are fundamentally equivalent to adding different on-site potential energies into the non-Hermitian ladder system.     

Generation of Exactly Solvable Non-Hermitian Potentials with Real Energies

Series of exactly solvable non-trivial complex potentials (possessing real spectra) are generated by applying the Darboux transformation to the excited eigenstates of a non-Hermitian potential V(x). This method yields an infinite number of non-trivial partner potentials, defined over the whole real line, whose spectra are nearly exactly identical to the original potential.     

囚禁单离子的量子阻尼运动

用包含偶极和四极虚势能项的非厄米哈密顿算符来描述Paul阱中囚禁阻尼单离子在静电场下的量子运动.通过导出和分析系统的精确解,得到在PT对称和不对称情形下的不同实能谱与稳定量子态,以及PT不对称情形的虚能谱和衰减量子态,同时给出相应于不同态的参数区域和存活概率.结果发现该非厄米系统外场参数能惟一确定量子稳定态并导致波函数形态变化,据此提出非相干操控相应量子跃迁的方法.让量子态衰减导致的离子位置期待值的衰减与经典阻尼谐振子的衰减一致,得到虚势能参数与经典阻尼参数的对应关系.所得结果将进一步丰富具有广泛应用背景的囚禁离子动力学.     

Efficient and stable wireless power transfer based on the non-Hermitian physics

As one of the most attractive non-radiative power transfer mechanisms without cables,efficient magnetic resonance wireless power transfer(WPT)in the near field has been extensively developed in recent years,and promoted a variety of practical applications,such as mobile phones,medical implant devices and electric vehicles.However,the physical mechanism behind some key limitations of the resonance WPT,such as frequency splitting and size-dependent efficiency,is not very clear under the widely used circuit model.Here,we review the recently developed efficient and stable resonance WPT based on non-Hermitian physics,which starts from a completely different avenue(utilizing loss and gain)to introduce novel functionalities to the resonance WPT.From the perspective of non-Hermitian photonics,the coherent and incoherent effects compete and coexist in the WPT system,and the weak stable of energy transfer mainly comes from the broken phase associated with the phase transition of parity-time symmetry.Based on this basic physical framework,some optimization schemes are proposed,including using nonlinear effect,using bound states in the continuum,or resorting to the system with high-order parity-time symmetry.Moreover,the combination of non-Hermitian physics and topological photonics in multi-coil system also provides a versatile platform for long-range robust WPT with topological protection.Therefore,the non-Hermitian physics can not only exactly predict the main results of current WPT systems,but also provide new ways to solve the difficulties of previous designs.     

Biorthogonal quantum criticality in non-Hermitian many-body systems

We develop the perturbation theory of the fidelity susceptibility in biorthogonal bases for arbitrary interacting non-Hermitian many-body systems with real eigenvalues. The quantum criticality in the non-Hermitian transverse field Ising chain is investigated by the second derivative of the ground-state energy and the ground-state fidelity susceptibility. We show that the system undergoes a second-order phase transition with the Ising universal class by numerically computing the critical points and the critical exponents from the finite-size scaling theory. Interestingly, our results indicate that the biorthogonal quantum phase transitions are described by the biorthogonal fidelity susceptibility instead of the conventional fidelity susceptibility.     

Dynamics of Ion Channels via Non-Hermitian Quantum Mechanics

We study dynamics and thermodynamics of ion transport in narrow, water-filled channels, considered as effective 1D Coulomb systems. The long range nature of the inter-ion interactions comes about due to the dielectric constants mismatch between the water and the surrounding medium, confining the electric filed to stay mostly within the water-filled channel. Statistical mechanics of such Coulomb systems is dominated by entropic effects which may be accurately accounted for by mapping onto an effective quantum mechanics. In presence of multivalent ions the corresponding quantum mechanics appears to be non-Hermitian. In this review we discuss a framework for semiclassical calculations for the effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. Non-Hermiticity elevates WKB action integrals from the real line to closed cycles on a complex Riemann surfaces where direct calculations are not attainable. We circumvent this issue by applying tools from algebraic topology, such as the Picard-Fuchs equation. We discuss how its solutions relate to the thermodynamics and correlation functions of multivalent solutions within narrow, water-filled channels.     

Quantum speed limit time of a non-Hermitian two-level system

We investigated the quantum speed limit time of a non-Hermitian two-level system for which gain and loss of energy or amplitude are present. Our results show that, with respect to two distinguishable states of the non-Hermitian system, the evolutionary time does not have a nonzero lower bound. The quantum evolution of the system can be effectively accelerated by adjusting the non-Hermitian parameter, as well as the quantum speed limit time can be arbitrarily small even be zero.     

Topological Phase Transition of Non-Hermitian Crosslinked Chain

The contents of topological classification of matter are enriched by non-Hermiticity, such as exceptional points, bulk-edge correspondence, and skin effects. Physically, gain and loss can be introduced by imaginary on-site potentials of lattice Hamiltonians, and the topological phase transition for a cross-linked chain in the presence of such non-Hermiticity is investigated. The topological phase diagram in terms of a winding number is obtained analytically with phase boundaries coinciding with the surfaces of exceptional points. The topologically original edge states with distribution mainly at the joints between domains of different phases are protected even for long chains. The non-Hermitian topological feature can also be reflected by vortex structures in the vector fields of complex eigenenergies, expected values of Pauli matrices, and trajectories of these quantities. This model may be implemented in coupled photonic crystals, fermions trapped in optical lattice, or non-Hermitian electrical-circuit lattices, and the edge states are immune to various kinds of disorders until topological phase transition occurs. This work gives insight into the influence of non-Hermiticity on topological phase of matter.     

Complex energy plane and topological invariant in non-Hermitian systems

Non-Hermitian systems as theoretical models of open or dissipative systems exhibit rich novel physical properties and fundamental issues in condensed matter physics. We propose a generalized local–global correspondence between the pseudo-boundary states in the complex energy plane and topological invariants of quantum states. We find that the patterns of the pseudo-boundary states in the complex energy plane mapped to the Brillouin zone are topological invariants against the parameter deformation. We demonstrate this approach by the non-Hermitian Chern insulator model. We give the consistent topological phases obtained from the Chern number and vorticity. We also find some novel topological invariants embedded in the topological phases of the Chern insulator model, which enrich the phase diagram of the non-Hermitian Chern insulators model beyond that predicted by the Chern number and vorticity. We also propose a generalized vorticity and its flipping index to understand physics behind this novel local–global correspondence and discuss the relationships between the local–global correspondence and the Chern number as well as the transformation between the Brillouin zone and the complex energy plane. These novel approaches provide insights to how topological invariants may be obtained from local information as well as the global property of quantum states, which is expected to be applicable in more generic non-Hermitian systems.     

腔光子-自旋波量子耦合系统中各向异性奇异点的实验研究

通过耦合三维微波腔中光子和腔内钇铁石榴石单晶小球中的自旋波量子形成腔-自旋波量子的耦合系统,并通过精确调节系统参数在该实验系统中观测到各向异性奇异点.奇异点对应于非厄米系统中一种特殊状态,在奇异点处,耦合系统的本征值和本征矢均简并,并且往往伴随着非平庸的物理性质.以往大量研究主要集中在各向同性奇异点的范畴,它的特征是在系统参数空间中沿着不同参数坐标趋近该奇异点时具有相同的函数关系.在这篇文章中,主要介绍实验上在腔光子-自旋波量子耦合系统中通过调节系统的耦合强度和腔的耗散衰减系数两条趋近奇异点的路径而实现了各向异性奇异点,具体分别对应于在趋近奇异点时,本征值的虚部的变化与耦合强度和腔的衰减系数的变化会有线性和平方根不同的行为.各向异性奇异点的实现有助于基于腔光子-自旋波量子耦合系统的量子信息处理和精密探测器件的进一步研究.     

Bose–Einstein condensates under a non-Hermitian spin–orbit coupling

We study the properties of Bose–Einstein condensates under a non-Hermitian spin–orbit coupling(SOC), induced by a dissipative two-photon Raman process. We focus on the dynamics of the condensate at short times, when the impact of decoherence induced by quantum jumps is negligible and the dynamics is coherently driven by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Given the significantly modified single-particle physics by dissipative SOC, the interplay of non-Hermiticity and interaction leads to a quasi-steady-state phase diagram different from its Hermitian counterpart. In particular, we find that dissipation can induce a phase transition from the stripe phase to the plane-wave phase. We further map out the phase diagram with respect to the dissipation and interaction strengths, and finally investigate the stability of quasi-steady states through the time-dependent dissipative Gross–Pitaevskii equation. Our results are readily accessible based on standard experiments with synthetic spin–orbit couplings.     

非厄米哈密顿量的物理意义

分析了一个脉冲激光与原子相互作用的四能级系统，并考虑最上层能级的自电离过程，从而引入非厄米哈密顿量.在缀饰原子模型下，通过直接求解此哈密顿量的本征值与本征函数，得到系统布居的演化函数.与数值方法所得演化函数的对比表明二者相当符合，从而肯定了非厄米哈密顿量在量子力学框架中的地位，并得到其本征值虚部的物理意义.这将使传统量子力学中力学量的定义得以拓展. 关键词： 非厄米哈密顿量 缀饰原子模型     

Two-body exceptional points in open dissipative systems

We study two-body non-Hermitian physics in the context of an open dissipative system depicted by the Lindblad master equation.Adopting a minimal lattice model of a handful of interacting fermions with single-particle dissipation,we show that the non-Hermitian effective Hamiltonian of the master equation gives rise to two-body scattering states with state-and interaction-dependent parity-time transition.The resulting two-body exceptional points can be extracted from the trace-preserving density-matrix dynamics of the same dissipative system with three atoms.Our results not only demonstrate the interplay of parity-time symmetry and interaction on the exact few-body level,but also serve as a minimal illustration on how key features of non-Hermitian few-body physics can be probed in an open dissipative many-body system.     

Proximity-Encirclement of Multiple Exceptional Points in Non-Hermitian Photonic Waveguides

Conventionally, dynamical encirclement of exceptional points in non-Hermitian systems is known to manifest a counterintuitive chiral state conversion. However, the prerequisite of such traits enclosing an exceptional point is broken when only encircling its proximity, preserving a still chiral switching. Research on the proximity-encirclement in multistate systems is lacking. In this paper, a photonic-waveguide-array non-Hermitian system is proposed to investigate the dynamics by encircling two exceptional points or their proximity. A series of encircling trajectories defined by the parametric equations are designed to steer the evolution of photonic modes in waveguides. The wave propagating along the waveguides is also simulated to capture this non-Hermitian physics. The chiral behavior in proximity-encirclement contrasts with the familiar encirclement of one exceptional point and exhibits the unexpected occurrence of nonadiabatic transitions. Furthermore, if two exceptional points are sufficiently encircled, the system will evolve to a stable final state earlier, as a symbol of the occurrence of the nonadiabatic transition. Such novel chiral conversion is maintained only if the encircling trajectories are located at adequate proximity.     

Mobility edges and reentrant localization in one-dimensional dimerized non-Hermitian quasiperiodic lattice

The mobility edges and reentrant localization transitions are studied in one-dimensional dimerized lattice with nonHermitian either uniform or staggered quasiperiodic potentials.We find that the non-Hermitian uniform quasiperiodic disorder can induce an intermediate phase where the extended states coexist with the localized ones,which implies that the system has mobility edges.The localization transition is accompanied by the PT symmetry breaking transition.While if the non-Hermitian quasiperiodic disorder is staggered,we demonstrate the existence of multiple intermediate phases and multiple reentrant localization transitions based on the finite size scaling analysis.Interestingly,some already localized states will become extended states and can also be localized again for certain non-Hermitian parameters.The reentrant localization transitions are associated with the intermediate phases hosting mobility edges.Besides,we also find that the non-Hermiticity can break the reentrant localization transition where only one intermediate phase survives.More detailed information about the mobility edges and reentrant localization transitions are presented by analyzing the eigenenergy spectrum,inverse participation ratio,and normalized participation ratio.