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arXiv:2212.13753 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Anatomy of open-boundary bulk in multiband non-Hermitian systems

Yongxu Fu, Yi Zhang

Published Mar 13, 2023• 26 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Although the non-Bloch band theory is a milestone in elaborating bulk energy bands of non-Hermitian systems under the open-boundary condition (OBC), vital issues related to multivalued functions of non-Hermitian energy bands remain unsolved. In this paper, we anatomize the bulk properties of one-dimensional multiband non-Hermitian systems under OBC. We put forward the energy-band branches (EBBs) to settle the multivalued functions of non-Hermitian energy bands, which become gapped or gapless corresponding to disconnected or connected EBBs in the complex energy plane, where the branch points and branch cuts play a crucial role. We clarify the precise significance of the non-Hermitian skin effect, which illustrates the asymptotic behavior of EBB eigenstates (bulk eigenstates) in the deep bulk and compensates previous non-Bloch band theory. We also obtain a general expression of open-boundary Green's functions based on such EBBs and generalized Brillouin zones, useful for studies on non-Hermitian dynamical evolution.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.107.115412

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Although the non-Bloch band theory is a milestone in elaborating bulk energy bands of non-Hermitian systems under the open-boundary condition (OBC), vital issues related to multivalued functions of non-Hermitian energy bands remain unsolved. In this paper, we anatomize the bulk properties of one-dimensional multiband non-Hermitian systems under OBC. We put forward the energy-band branches (EBBs) to settle the multivalued functions of non-Hermitian energy bands, which become gapped or gapless corresponding to disconnected or connected EBBs in the complex energy plane, where the branch points and branch cuts play a crucial role. We clarify the precise significance of the non-Hermitian skin effect, which illustrates the asymptotic behavior of EBB eigenstates (bulk eigenstates) in the deep bulk and compensates previous non-Bloch band theory. We also obtain a general expression of open-boundary Green's functions based on such EBBs and generalized Brillouin zones, useful for studies on non-Hermitian dynamical evolution.
In non-Hermitian systems, it is a counterintuitive feature of the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) that the energy spectrum and eigenstates can be totally different under open or periodic boundary conditions, suggesting that non-Hermitian spectra can be extremely sensitive to non-local perturbations. Here, we show that a wide range of non-Hermitian models with NHSE can even be highly sensitive to local perturbation under open boundary conditions. The spectrum of these models is so fragile that it can be significantly modified by adding only exponentially small perturbations on boundaries. Intriguingly, we show that such fragile spectra are quantified by the Green's function exhibiting unconventional V-shape asymptotic behaviors. Accordingly, bi-directional exponential amplification can be observed. As an interesting consequence, we find a real-to-complex transition of the bulk spectrum induced by exponentially small boundary perturbations. Finally, we reveal a hierarchy of the asymptotic behaviors of non-Hermitian Green's functions, which restricts the frequency range for the presence of unconventional Green's functions.
Boundary perturbations are generally irrelevant for bulk properties in the thermodynamic limit, as they are edge-confined and subextensive. We show that this expectation breaks down in boundary-driven systems exhibiting the non-Hermitian skin effect, where arbitrarily weak boundary Floquet driving reconstructs bulk quasienergy spectra and dynamics. We develop a Floquet non-Bloch band theory that extends generalized Brillouin-zone methods to boundary-driven systems at arbitrary driving frequencies, overcoming the lack of a general framework beyond high-frequency approximations. With representative single- and two-band models, we demonstrate that the boundary driving frequency tunes non-Bloch parity-time symmetry breaking, while its amplitude acts as a finite-size control parameter. Our work establishes boundary Floquet control as a general route for manipulating bulk properties, opening a new avenue for dynamical engineering in driven open systems.
The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE), characterized by a macroscopic accumulation of eigenstates at the edge of a system with open boundaries, is often ascribed to a non-trivial point-gap topology of the Bloch Hamiltonian. We revisit this connection and separate the question of the NHSE as a spectral reconstruction effect in clean systems from the question of stable topological protection. For a Hatano-Nelson ladder, where point-gap winding and non-normality can be varied independently, we demonstrate that, in a clean translationally invariant multiband setting, the NHSE can occur without point-gap winding and, conversely, that point-gap winding can persist without the NHSE. These results establish that in the clean case the connection between point-gap winding and the NHSE only holds in the scalar one-band case but, in general, not in the multiband case. Even more importantly, the eigenspectrum of non-normal operators is generically highly sensitive to boundary conditions and perturbations, and therefore does not constitute a stable object encoding topological information. Instead, topological properties are reflected in the splitting of the singular-value spectrum for finite systems and, in the semi-infinite limit, correspond to boundary-localized kernel modes implied by the index of the corresponding Toeplitz operator.
The non-Hermitian skin effect is nonreciprocity-induced localization phenomena in which a macroscopic number of eigenstates accumulate anomalously at the boundary, accompanied by the extreme sensitivity to boundary conditions. Here, we develop a geometric characterization of the non-Hermitian skin effect. We demonstrate that the localization length scale associated with the skin effect is encoded in the quantum metric defined solely from right eigenstates, but not in the biorthogonal quantum metric. Moreover, we show that the quantum metrics can exhibit the power-law divergences at gapless points that depend on the different boundary conditions. We also reveal that cusps of the generalized Brillouin zone in non-Bloch band theory are signaled by discontinuities in the quantum metrics. We illustrate these behavior using prototypical non-Hermitian models, such as the Hatano-Nelson model and the non-Hermitian, nonreciprocal Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model.
Symmetry-protected ideal flat bands in one-dimensional (1D) Hermitian lattices are populated by compact localized states (CLS) - a special class of localization with wavefunctions confined within a small region. In this work, we discover that the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) can appear in a flat band. Unlike conventional NHSEs for dispersive bands that are protected by nontrivial point-gap topology, the flat band remains a point on the complex-energy plane and is therefore always topologically trivial. We found that, intriguingly, the flat-band skin effect (FBSE) is associated with the non-trivial spectral topology of the dispersive bands enclosing the flat band on the complex-energy plane, so it only emerges within a finite range of non-Hermitian parameters and can counterintuitively disappear at large non-Hermiticity. Moreover, the gaps between the flat and the dispersive bands can close at higher-order exceptional points under both periodic and open boundary conditions. The flat-band wavefunctions are discontinuous in quantum distance across these exceptional points, signifying that the gap-closing is singular. The FBSE was experimentally observed in a non-Hermitian mechanical lattice. Our work reveals flat-band phenomena unique to non-Hermitian systems and highlights new possibilities in quantum geometry and localization control.
We formulate quantum geometry for non-Hermitian systems under open boundary conditions. By defining quantum-geometric quantities in both real-space and non-Bloch representations, we establish a unified framework beyond conventional Bloch band theory. Our central result is an exact equivalence between the real-space integrated quantum metric and a non-Bloch integrated quantum metric defined on the generalized Brillouin zone. We further introduce localized non-Bloch Wannier functions in the presence of the non-Hermitian skin effect and show that the non-Bloch integrated quantum metric gives the gauge-invariant part of their spread functional. These results establish quantum geometry as a natural framework for characterizing open-boundary non-Hermitian band structures and the localization properties encoded in skin modes.