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arXiv:1312.3395 · Physical Review Letters

Local PT Symmetry Violates the No-Signaling Principle

Yi-Chan Lee, Min-Hsiu Hsieh, Steven T. Flammia, Ray‐Kuang Lee

Published Apr 3, 2014• 156 citations
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Abstract

Bender et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 5243 (1998)] have developed PT-symmetric quantum theory as an extension of quantum theory to non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. We show that when this model has a local PT symmetry acting on composite systems, it violates the nonsignaling principle of relativity. Since the case of global PT symmetry is known to reduce to standard quantum mechanics A. Mostafazadeh [J. Math. Phys. 43, 205 (2001)], this shows that the PT-symmetric theory is either a trivial extension or likely false as a fundamental theory.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.112.130404

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Bender et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 5243 (1998)] have developed PT-symmetric quantum theory as an extension of quantum theory to non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. We show that when this model has a local PT symmetry acting on composite systems, it violates the nonsignaling principle of relativity. Since the case of global PT symmetry is known to reduce to standard quantum mechanics A. Mostafazadeh [J. Math. Phys. 43, 205 (2001)], this shows that the PT-symmetric theory is either a trivial extension or likely false as a fundamental theory.
Bender and Boettcher explored a quantum theory based on a non-Hermitian PT­ symmetric Hamiltonian , where PT is the operator of the space-time reflection and demonstrated that the PT-symmetric Hamiltonian can possess entirely real spectra. In this thesis, we point out that in the framework of PT-symmetric quantum mechanics; the calculation of matrix elements in the Hilbert space is ill-defined. We point out the importance of using CPT inner product in PT-symmetric systems. We manifested our assessment using the CPT inner product prescription for the entangled wave function of the composite system. We show that for a composite system with a local PT-symmetry, it preserves the no-signaling condition and the orthogonality of the states.The reduced density matrix is diagonal and independent of the non-Hermitian parameter . We reaffirm the consistency of PT-symmetric quantum mechanics as a candidate for a fundamental theory .
Yi-Chan Lee et al. claim (cf. Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 130404 (2014)) that the “recent extension of quantum theory to non-Hermitian Hamiltonians” (which is widely known under the nickname of “PT-symmetric quantum theory”) is “likely false as a fundamental theory”. By their opinion their results “essentially kill any hope of PT-symmetric quantum theory as a fundamental theory of nature”. In our present text we explain that their toy-model-based considerations are misleading and that they do not imply any similar conclusions.
We show that the no-signaling principle can be violated with classical inseparable beams in the presence of a parity-time (PT) symmetric subsystem. Thus, the problems associated to PT-symmetric quantum theories recently discovered by Lee et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 130404 (2014)] are not exclusive to quantum mechanics, but already exist in the classical case. The possibility to implement local optical PT-symmetric subsystems via light-matter interactions enables the experimental exploration of local PT symmetry and subtle quantum concepts via classical analogues.
In the seminal paper (Bender & Boettcher, 1998) a new view of quantum mechanics was proposed. This new view differs from the old one in that the restriction on the Hamiltonian to be Hermitian is relaxed: now the Hamiltonian is PT -symmetric. Here P is parity and T is time reversal. Since 1998, PT -symmetric Hamiltonians have been analyzed intensively by many authors. In Mostafazadeh (2002) PT -symmetry was embedded into the more general mathematical framework of pseudo-Hermiticity or, what is the same, self-adjoint operators in Kre˘ın spaces, see (Langer & Tretter, 2004; Azizov & Trunk, 2012; Hassi & Kuzhel, 2013; Leben & Trunk, 2019). For a general introduction to PT -symmetric quantum mechanics we refer to the overview paper of Mostafazadeh (2010) and to the books of Moiseyev (2011) and Bender (2019).
This dissertation concerns the concept of PT symmetry as a replacement of the conventional symmetry of the Dirac Hermiticity of the operators, in particular, for the Hamiltonian. After solving a controversial issue surrounding the claimed violation of the special relativity by PT-symmetric quantum mechanics, we move further to discuss PT symmetry for the systems whose associated time reversal symmetry is odd, i.e., T^2 = −1. Our results, as published papers, are incorporated in the subsequent chapters. Then we conclude by suggestions for future work.
Abstract PT-symmetric quantum theory was originally proposed with the aim of extending standard quantum theory by relaxing the Hermiticity constraint on Hamiltonians. However, no such extension has been formulated that consistently describes states, transformations, measurements and composition, which is a requirement for any physical theory. We aim to answer the question of whether a consistent physical theory with PT-symmetric observables extends standard quantum theory. We answer this question within the framework of general probabilistic theories, which is the most general framework for physical theories. We construct the set of states of a system that result from imposing PT-symmetry on the set of observables, and show that the resulting theory allows only one trivial state. We next consider the constraint of quasi-Hermiticity on observables, which guarantees the unitarity of evolution under a Hamiltonian with unbroken PT-symmetry. We show that such a system is equivalent to a standard quantum system. Finally, we show that if all observables are quasi-Hermitian as well as PT-symmetric, then the system is equivalent to a real quantum system. Thus our results show that neither PT-symmetry nor quasi-Hermiticity constraints are sufficient to extend standard quantum theory consistently.