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arXiv:1610.09752 · Scientific Reports

Universal Critical Behaviours in Non-Hermitian Phase Transitions

Bo-Bo Wei, Liang Jin

Published Jul 27, 2017• 27 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quantum phase transitions occur in non-Hermitian systems. In this work we show that density functional theory, for the first time, uncovers universal critical behaviors for quantum phase transitions and quantum entanglement in non-Hermitian many-body systems. To be specific, we first prove that the non-degenerate steady state of a non-Hermitian quantum many body system is a universal function of the first derivative of the steady state energy with respect to the control parameter. This finding has far-reaching consequences for non-Hermitian systems. First, it bridges the non-analytic behavior of physical observable and no-analytic behavior of steady state energy, which explains why the quantum phase transitions in non-Hermitian systems occur for finite systems. Second, it predicts universal scaling behaviors of any physical observable at non-Hermitian phase transition point with scaling exponent being (1 - 1/p) with p being the number of coalesced states at the exceptional point. Third, it reveals that quantum entanglement in non-Hermitian phase transition point presents universal scaling behaviors with critical exponents being (1 - 1/p). These results uncover universal critical behaviors in non-Hermitian phase transitions and provide profound connections between entanglement and phase transition in non-Hermitian quantum many-body physics.

DOI
10.1038/s41598-017-07344-z

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Quantum phase transitions occur in non-Hermitian systems. In this work we show that density functional theory, for the first time, uncovers universal critical behaviors for quantum phase transitions and quantum entanglement in non-Hermitian many-body systems. To be specific, we first prove that the non-degenerate steady state of a non-Hermitian quantum many body system is a universal function of the first derivative of the steady state energy with respect to the control parameter. This finding has far-reaching consequences for non-Hermitian systems. First, it bridges the non-analytic behavior of physical observable and no-analytic behavior of steady state energy, which explains why the quantum phase transitions in non-Hermitian systems occur for finite systems. Second, it predicts universal scaling behaviors of any physical observable at non-Hermitian phase transition point with scaling exponent being (1 - 1/p) with p being the number of coalesced states at the exceptional point. Third, it reveals that quantum entanglement in non-Hermitian phase transition point presents universal scaling behaviors with critical exponents being (1 - 1/p). These results uncover universal critical behaviors in non-Hermitian phase transitions and provide profound connections between entanglement and phase transition in non-Hermitian quantum many-body physics.
Density functional theory (DFT) has met great success in solid state physics, quantum chemistry and in computational material sciences. In this work we show that DFT could shed light on phase transitions and entanglement at finite temperatures. Specifically, we show that the equilibrium state of an interacting quantum many-body system which is in thermal equilibrium with a heat bath at a fixed temperature is a universal functional of the first derivatives of the free energy with respect to temperature and other control parameters respectively. This insight from DFT enables us to express the average value of any physical observable and any entanglement measure as a universal functional of the first derivatives of the free energy with respect to temperature and other control parameters. Since phase transitions are marked by the nonanalytic behavior of free energy with respect to control parameters, the physical quantities and entanglement measures may present nonanalytic behavior at critical point inherited from their dependence on the first derivative of free energy. We use two solvable models to demonstrate these ideas. These results give new insights for phase transitions and provide new profound connections between entanglement and phase transitions in interacting quantum many-body physics.
The scaling law of entanglement entropy could undergo qualitative changes during the nonunitary evolution of a quantum many-body system. In this work, we uncover such entanglement phase transitions for free fermions in one-dimensional non-Hermitian quasicrystals (NHQCs). We identify two types of entanglement transitions with different scaling laws and critical behaviors due to the interplay between non-Hermitian effects and quasiperiodic potentials. The first type represents a typical volume-law to area-law transition, which happens together with a PT-symmetry breaking and a localization transition. The second type features an abnormal log-law to area-law transition, which is mediated by a critical phase with a volume-law scaling in the steady-state entanglement entropy. These entangling phases and transitions are demonstrated in two representative models of noninteracting NHQCs. Our results thus advance the study of entanglement transitions in non-Hermitian disordered systems and further disclose the rich entanglement patterns in NHQCs.
In this work, we investigate many-body phase transitions in a one-dimensional anisotropic XY model subject to a complex-valued transverse field. Within the biorthogonal framework, we calculate the ground-state correlation functions and entanglement entropy, confirming that their scaling behavior remains identical to that in the Hermitian XY model. The preservation of Hermitian phase transition features in the non-Hermitian setting is rooted in the persistence and emergence of symmetries and their breaking. Specifically, the ferromagnetic (FM) phase arises from the breaking of a Z2Z_2Z2​ symmetry, while the Luttinger liquid (LL) phase is enabled by the emergence of a U(1)U(1)U(1) symmetry together with the degeneracy of the real part of the energy spectrum. The nontrivial topology of the LL phase are characterized by the winding number around the exceptional point (EP). Given that non-Hermitian systems are inherently open, this research opens a new avenue for exploring conventional quantum phase transitions that are typically vulnerable to decoherence and environmental disruption in open quantum 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.
In this paper we investigate the universality and scaling properties of the well-known quantities in classical statistical mechanics near the quantum phase transition point. We show that transverse susceptibility and derivatives of correlation functions with respect to the parameter that drives the quantum phase transitions, exhibit logarithmic divergence and finite size scaling the same as entanglement. In other words the non-analytic and finite size scaling behaviors of entanglement is not its intrinsic properties and inherit from the non-analytic and scaling behaviors of correlation functions and surveying at least the nearest neighbor correlation functions could specify the scaling and divergence properties of entanglement. However we show that the correlation functions could capture the quantum critical point without pre-assumed order parameters even for the cases where the two-body entanglement is absent.
Quantum matter emerges from the interplay of fluctuations, topology, and entanglement, which - in equilibrium - governs quantized transport, universal criticality, and topological classification. Non-Hermitian systems, widely explored in platforms ranging from electric circuits to photonics, are intrinsically out-of-equilibrium, and display fundamentally new phenomena, including complex spectra, spectral winding, exceptional topology, and non-unitary dynamics. A central challenge is understanding how the complex single-particle spectrum governs universal many-body behavior. We introduce a symmetry-protected dynamical topological index derived directly from the complex spectrum. Through the lens of algebraic topology, more specifically Morse theory, we identify critical points in the spectrum with topological defects, whose curvature and stability are protected under continuous deformations. This links spectral geometry to many-body observables, unifying non-Hermitian band topology, entanglement, and transport. We demonstrate that non-Hermitian quantum criticality in non-interacting systems is controlled by gain-and-loss-selected non-equilibrium steady states, which dynamically generate an emergent imaginary Fermi surface whose Fermi points host scale-invariant gapless modes with logarithmic entanglement scaling and algebraic correlations. Our work establishes a unified framework for non-Hermitian quantum matter, connecting spectral topology to Morse theory, revealing a topological foundation of non-equilibrium quantum criticality.