Hamiltonian Mechanics works for conserved systems and Quantum Mechanics is given in Hamiltonian language. It is considered that complexifying the quantum Hamiltonian, a balanced loss and gain model can be created. The usual mathematics of density operator formalism and entanglement is extrapolated to such systems and the consequences are studied. Namely, a complete formalism using Density operators is created for real eigenvalue regime of these Non- Hermitian systems and correct forms of Von-Neumann and Entanglement Entropy are created. The consequences are studied in this regime and depicted w.r.t recent papers by [9, 20].
Hamiltonian Mechanics works for conserved systems and Quantum Mechanics is given in Hamiltonian language. It is considered that complexifying the quantum Hamiltonian, a balanced loss and gain model can be created. The usual mathematics of density operator formalism and entanglement is extrapolated to such systems and the consequences are studied. Namely, a complete formalism using Density operators is created for real eigenvalue regime of these Non- Hermitian systems and correct forms of Von-Neumann and Entanglement Entropy are created. The consequences are studied in this regime and depicted w.r.t recent papers by [9, 20].
In this paper we consider density matrices operator related to non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. In particular, we analyze two natural extensions of what is usually called a density matrix operator (DM), of pure states and of the entropy operator: we first consider those operators which are simply similar to a standard DM, and then we discuss those which are intertwined with a DM by a third, non invertible, operator, giving rise to what we call Riesz Density Matrix operator (RDM). After introducing the mathematical framework, we apply the framework to a couple of applications. The first application is related to a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian describing gain and loss phenomena, widely considered in the context of PT-quantum mechanics. The second application is related to a finite-dimensional version of the Swanson Hamiltonian, never considered before, and addresses the problem of deriving a milder version of the RDM when exceptional points form in the system.
In a recent paper (A. Fring and T. Frith, Phys. Rev A 100, 101102 (2019)), a Dyson scheme to deal with density matrix of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians has been used to investigate the entanglement of states of a PT-symmetric bosonic system. They found that von Neumann entropy can show a different behavior in the broken and unbroken regime. We show that their results can be recast in terms of an abstract model of pseudo-Hermitian random matrices. It is found however that although the formalism is practically the same, the entanglement is not of Fock states but of Bell states.
We study the quantum-mechanical interpretation of models with non-Hermitian Hamiltonians and real spectra. We set up a general framework for the analysis of such systems in terms of Hermitian Hamiltonians defined in the usual Hilbert space L2(−∞,∞). Special emphasis is put on the correct definition of the algebra of physical observables. Within this scheme we consider various examples, including the model recently introduced by Cannata et al. and the model of Hatano and Nelson.
The relevance in physics of non-Hermitian operators with real eigenvalues is being widely recognized not only in quantum mechanics but also in other areas, such as quantum optics, quantum fluid dynamics, and quantum field theory. In this note, a quantum system described by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian, which is constituted by two types of interacting bosons, is investigated. The real eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian are explicitly determined, as well as complete biorthogonal sets of eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonian and its adjoint. The diagonal representation of H is obtained using pseudo-bosonic operators.
Abstract. We study the quantum entropy of systems that are described by general non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, including those which can model the effects of sinks or sources. We generalize the von Neumann entropy to the non-Hermitian case and find that one needs both the normalized and non-normalized density operators in order to properly describe irreversible processes. It turns out that such a generalization monitors the onset of disorder in quantum dissipative systems. We give arguments for why one can consider the generalized entropy as the informational entropy describing the flow of information between the system and the bath. We illustrate the theory by explicitly studying few simple models, including tunneling systems with two energy levels and non-Hermitian detuning.
One of the most important predictions of quantum mechanics is the existence of quantum entanglement. Since the inception of quantum theory, the study of entanglement has become ubiquitous in several branches of physics, from high energy to condensed matter physics and quantum information. To this avail, different measures of entanglement in quantum systems have been introduced. The most successful ones are the von Neumann and the Rényi entanglement entropies, which have been heavily studied both in lattice models and in quantum field theories (QFTs). A different, more complete characterization of entanglement is provided by the entanglement (or modular) Hamiltonian, defined as the logarithm of the reduced density matrix. One of the key property of this operator is that, under generic conditions, in 1+1-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs) presents a local and few-body structure. Beyond just being of theoretical interest, this property has been recently used to efficiently construct the ground state of spin chains in quantum simulators. A recently introduced generalisation of the entanglement Hamiltonian is the negativity Hamiltonian, a non-Hermitian operator which is more useful for mixed states and tripartite entanglement. In this thesis we study these quantifications in many-body quantum systems and in QFTs. In the first part of the thesis, we focus on fermionic systems at equilibrium, and we obtain analytical expressions for the entanglement and the negativity Hamiltonians in the massless Dirac fermion QFT, both in presence of boundaries and at finite temperature. We compare these predictions in the continuum QFT with numerical calculations on the lattice, showing that a proper comparison requires a non-trivial continuum limit of the lattice expression, which we detail. We also investigate a lattice realisation of a non-unitary CFT, the bc-ghost theory, showing that the entanglement Hamiltonian presents an additional term with respect to the unitary case. In the second part, we study the entanglement entropies in an integrable QFT, the massless renormalisation group flow from the tricritical to the critical Ising CFT, demonstrating that the entropy is monotonically decreasing under the renormalisation group flow, as expected from the entropic c-theorem. In the third part we consider out-of-equilibrium problems. We study the melting of a domain wall configuration, computing analytically the entanglement Hamiltonian and showing that the insertion of a defect dramatically modifies the entanglement properties, changing the growth of the entropies from logarithmic to linear in time. Finally, we study generic quantum quenches in free fermionic theories, using the celebrated quasiparticle picture to obtain a prediction for the evolution of the entanglement Hamiltonian during the quench.