The bound-state spectrum of a Hamiltonian H is assumed real in a non-empty domain of physical values of parameters. This means that for these parameters, H may be called crypto-Hermitian, i.e. made Hermitian via an ad hoc choice of the inner product in the physical Hilbert space of quantum bound states (i.e. via an ad hoc construction of the operator Θ called the metric). The name quantum catastrophe is then assigned to the N -tuple-exceptional-point crossing, i.e. to the scenario in which we leave the domain along such a path that at the boundary of , an N -plet of bound-state energies degenerates and, subsequently, complexifies. At any fixed N ⩾ 2, this process is simulated via an N × N benchmark effective matrix Hamiltonian H . It is being assigned such a closed-form metric which is made unique via an N -extrapolation-friendliness requirement. This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to 'Quantum physics with non-Hermitian operators'.
The bound-state spectrum of a Hamiltonian H is assumed real in a non-empty domain of physical values of parameters. This means that for these parameters, H may be called crypto-Hermitian, i.e. made Hermitian via an ad hoc choice of the inner product in the physical Hilbert space of quantum bound states (i.e. via an ad hoc construction of the operator Θ called the metric). The name quantum catastrophe is then assigned to the N -tuple-exceptional-point crossing, i.e. to the scenario in which we leave the domain along such a path that at the boundary of , an N -plet of bound-state energies degenerates and, subsequently, complexifies. At any fixed N ⩾ 2, this process is simulated via an N × N benchmark effective matrix Hamiltonian H . It is being assigned such a closed-form metric which is made unique via an N -extrapolation-friendliness requirement. This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to 'Quantum physics with non-Hermitian operators'.
The description of unitary evolution using non-Hermitian but ‘hermitizable’ Hamiltonians H is feasible via an ad hoc metric Θ = Θ ( H ) and a (non-unique) amendment 〈 ψ 1 | ψ 2 〉 → 〈 ψ 1 | Θ | ψ 2 〉 of the inner product in Hilbert space. Via a proper fine-tuning of Θ ( H ) this opens the possibility of reaching the boundaries of stability (i.e. exceptional points) in many quantum systems sampled here by the fairly realistic Bose–Hubbard (BH) and discrete anharmonic oscillator (AO) models. In such a setting, it is conjectured that the EP singularity can play the role of a quantum phase-transition interface between different dynamical regimes. Three alternative ‘AO ↔ BH’ implementations of such an EP-mediated dynamical transmutation scenario are proposed and shown, at an arbitrary finite Hilbert-space dimension N , exact and non-numerical.
A unitary-evolution process leading to an ultimate collapse and to a complete loss of observability alias quantum phase transition is studied. A specific solvable N−state model is considered, characterized by a non-stationary non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Our analysis uses quantum mechanics formulated in Schrödinger picture in which, in principle, only the knowledge of a complete set of observables (i.e., operators Λj) enables one to guarantee the uniqueness of the related physical Hilbert space (i.e., of its inner-product metric Θ). Nevertheless, for the sake of simplicity, we only assume the knowledge of just a single input observable (viz., of the energy-representing Hamiltonian H≡Λ1). Then, out of all of the eligible and Hamiltonian-dependent “Hermitizing” inner-product metrics Θ=Θ(H), we pick up just the simplest possible candidate. Naturally, this slightly restricts the scope of the theory, but in our present model, such a restriction is more than compensated for by the possibility of an alternative, phenomenologically better motivated constraint by which the time-dependence of the metric is required to be smooth. This opens a new model-building freedom which, in fact, enables us to force the system to reach the collapse, i.e., a genuine quantum catastrophe as a result of the mere conventional, strictly unitary evolution.
Two sample constructions of all the Hilbert spaces for a given operator H of an observable
An elementary set of non-Hermitian N by N matrices H(N)(λ)=[H(N)(λ)]† with real spectra is considered, assuming that each of these matrices represents a selfadjoint quantum Hamiltonian in an {\it ad hoc} Hilbert space of states H(physical). The problem of an explicit specification of all of these spaces (i.e., in essence, of all of the eligible {\it ad hoc} inner products and metric operators Θ) is addressed. The problem is shown exactly solvable and, for every size N=2,4,... and parameter λ∈(−1,1) in matrix H(N)(λ), the complete N−parametric set of metrics Θα1,α2,...,αN(N)(λ) is recurrently defined by closed formula.
To the existing list of alternative formulations of quantum mechanics, a new version of the non-Hermitian interaction picture is added. What is new is that, in contrast to the more conventional non-Hermitian model-building recipes, the primary information about the observable phenomena is provided not only by the Hamiltonian but also by an additional operator with a real spectrum (say, R(t)) representing another observable. In the language of physics, the information carried by R(t)≠R†(t) opens the possibility of reaching the exceptional-point degeneracy of the real eigenvalues, i.e., a specific quantum phase transition. In parallel, the unitarity of the system remains guaranteed, as usual, via a time-dependent inner-product metric Θ(t). From the point of view of mathematics, the control of evolution is provided by a pair of conjugate Schrödiner equations. This opens the possibility od an innovative dyadic representation of pure states, by which the direct use of Θ(t) is made redundant. The implementation of the formalism is illustrated via a schematic cosmological toy model in which the canonical quantization leads to the necessity of working with two conjugate Wheeler-DeWitt equations. From the point of view of physics, the “kinematical input” operator R(t) may represent either the radius of a homogeneous and isotropic expanding empty Universe or, if you wish, its Hubble radius, or the scale factor a(t) emerging in the popular Lemaitre-Friedmann-Robertson-Walker classical solutions, with the exceptional-point singularity of the spectrum of R(t) mimicking the birth of the Universe (“Big Bang”) at t=0.
In quite a few recent quantum models one is allowed to make a given Hamiltonian H self-adjoint only after an ad hoc generalization of Hermitian conjugation, H†→H‡:= Θ −1H†Θ wherethe suitable operator Θ is called Hilbert-space metric. In the generalized, hidden-Hermiticity scenario with nontrivial metric Θ≠ I the current concept of solvability (meaning, most often, the feasibility of a non-numerical diagonalization of H) requires a generalization (allowing for a non-numerical tractabilityof Θ). A few very elementary samples of "solvable" quantum models of this new type are presented.
Abstract A family of exactly solvable quantum square wells with discrete coordinates and with certain non-stationary Hermiticity-violating Robin boundary conditions is proposed and studied. Manifest non-Hermiticity of the model in conventional Hilbert space H friendly is required to coexist with the unitarity of system in another, ad hoc Hilbert space H physical . Thus, quantum mechanics in its non-Hermitian interaction picture (NIP) representation is to be used. We must construct the time-dependent states (say, ψ(t)) as well as the time-dependent observables (say, Λ(t)). Their evolution in time is generated by the operators denoted, here, by the respective symbols G(t) (a Schrödinger-equation generator) and Σ(t) (a Heisenberg-equation generator, a.k.a. quantum Coriolis force). The unitarity of evolution in H physical is then guaranteed by the reality of spectrum of the energy observable alias Hamiltonian H(t) = G(t) + Σ(t). The applicability of these ideas is illustrated via an N by N matrix model. At N = 2, closed formulae are presented not only for the measurable instantaneous energy spectrum but also for all of the eligible time-dependent physical inner-product metrics Θ(N=2)(t), for the related Dyson maps Ω(N=2)(t), for the Coriolis force Σ(N=2)(t) as well as, in the very ultimate step of the construction, for the truly nontrivial Schrödinger-equation generator G (N=2)(t).