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arXiv:2009.11183 · Frontiers of Physics

Biorthogonal quantum criticality in non-Hermitian many-body systems

Gaoyong Sun, Jia-Chen Tang, Su-Peng Kou

Published Nov 19, 2021• 52 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1007/s11467-021-1126-1

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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.
We study many-body phase transitions in a one-dimensional ferromagnetic transversed field Ising model with an imaginary field, and show that the system exhibits three phase transitions: one second-order phase transition and two PT\mathcal{PT}PT phase transitions. The second-order phase transition occurring in the ground state is investigated via biorthogonal and self-normal entanglement entropy, for which we develop an approach to perform finite-size scaling theory to extract the central charge for small systems. Compared with the second-order phase transition, the first PT\mathcal{PT}PT transition is characterized by the appearance of an exceptional point in the full energy spectrum, while the second PT\mathcal{PT}PT transition only occurs in specific excited states. Furthermore, we interestingly show that both exceptional points are second-order in terms of scalings of imaginary parts of the energy. This work provides an exact solution for many-body phase transitions in non-Hermitian systems.
The fidelity susceptibility is a tool for studying quantum phase transitions in the Hermitian condensed matter systems. Recently, it has been generalized with the biorthogonal basis for the non-Hermitian quantum systems. From the general perturbation description with the constraint of parity-time (PT) symmetry, we show that the fidelity F is always real for the PT-unbroken states. For the PT-broken states, the real part of the fidelity susceptibility Re[XF] is corresponding to considering both the PT partner states, and the negative infinity is explored by the perturbation theory when the parameter approaches the exceptional point (EP). Moreover, at the second-order EP, we prove that the real part of the fidelity between PT-unbroken and PT-broken states is ReF=12 . Based on these general properties, we study the two-legged non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model and the non-Hermitian XXZ spin chain. We find that for both interacting and non-interacting systems, the real part of fidelity susceptibility density goes to negative infinity when the parameter approaches the EP, and verifies it is a second-order EP by ReF=12 .
Abstract We show that non-Hermitian biorthogonal many-body phase transitions can be characterized by the enhanced decay of Loschmidt echo. The quantum criticality is numerically investigated in a non-Hermitian transverse field Ising model by performing the finite-size dynamical scaling of Loschmidt echo. We determine the equilibrium correlation length critical exponents that are consistent with previous results from the exact diagonalization. More importantly, we introduce a simple method to detect quantum phase transitions with the short-time average of rate function motivated by the critically enhanced decay behavior of Loschmidt echo. Our studies show how to detect equilibrium many-body phase transitions with biorthogonal Loschmidt echo that can be observed in future experiments via quantum dynamics after a quench.
A conventional quantum phase transition (QPT) not only occurs at zero temperature, but also exhibits finite-temperature quantum criticality. Motivated by the discovery of the pseudo-Hermiticity of non-Hermitian systems, we explore the finite-temperature quantum criticality in a non-Hermitian PT\mathcal{PT}PT-symmetric Ising model. We present the complete set of exact eigenstates of the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian, based on which the mixed-state fidelity in the context of biorthogonal bases is calculated. Analytical and numerical results show that the fidelity approach to finite-temperature QPT can be extended to the non-Hermitian Ising model. This paves the way for experimental detection of quantum criticality in a complex-parameter plane.
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.
Quantum fidelity can serve as an effective diagnostic tool for detecting topological phase transitions. We investigate quantum critical behavior and topological phase transitions in a one-dimensional non-Hermitian Su–Schrieffer–Heeger lattice with periodic driving. The interplay between periodic driving and non-Hermiticity opens gaps at both zero and π quasienergies and gives rise to stable topological zero and π modes under open boundary conditions. To characterize the critical properties of the transition, we construct the fidelity susceptibility based on Floquet eigenstates and systematically compare two definitions: the self-normal fidelity and biorthogonal fidelity. In contrast to the self-normal fidelity susceptibility, the biorthogonal fidelity susceptibility exhibits a clear power-law scaling with system size and converges more reliably to the analytically expected critical points in the thermodynamic limit. Our results demonstrate that the biorthogonal fidelity susceptibility provides a robust and accurate approach to identifying Floquet non-Hermitian topological phase transitions and their quantum critical properties.