The non-Hermitian models, which are symmetric under parity ( P ) and time-reversal ( T ) operators, are the cornerstone for the fabrication of new ultra-sensitive optoelectronic devices. However, providing the gain in such systems usually demands precise control of nonlinear processes, limiting their application. In this paper, to bypass this obstacle, we introduce a class of time-dependent non-Hermitian Hamiltonians (not necessarily Floquet) that can describe a two-level system with temporally modulated on-site potential and couplings. We show that implementing an appropriate non-Unitary gauge transformation converts the original system to an effective one with a balanced gain and loss. This will allow us to derive the evolution of states analytically. Our proposed class of Hamiltonians can be employed in different platforms such as electronic circuits, acoustics, and photonics to design structures with hidden PT -symmetry potentially without imaginary onsite amplification and absorption mechanism to obtain an exceptional point.
The non-Hermitian models, which are symmetric under parity ( P ) and time-reversal ( T ) operators, are the cornerstone for the fabrication of new ultra-sensitive optoelectronic devices. However, providing the gain in such systems usually demands precise control of nonlinear processes, limiting their application. In this paper, to bypass this obstacle, we introduce a class of time-dependent non-Hermitian Hamiltonians (not necessarily Floquet) that can describe a two-level system with temporally modulated on-site potential and couplings. We show that implementing an appropriate non-Unitary gauge transformation converts the original system to an effective one with a balanced gain and loss. This will allow us to derive the evolution of states analytically. Our proposed class of Hamiltonians can be employed in different platforms such as electronic circuits, acoustics, and photonics to design structures with hidden PT -symmetry potentially without imaginary onsite amplification and absorption mechanism to obtain an exceptional point.
In recent years, there have been intensive studies of non-Hermitian physics and parity–time (PT) symmetry due to their fundamental importance in theory and outstanding applications. A distinctive character in PT-symmetric system is phase transition (spontaneous PT-symmetry breaking), i.e. an all-real energy spectrum changes into an all-complex one when the non-Hermitian parameter exceeds a certain threshold. However, the conditions for PT-symmetric system with real energy spectrum to occur are rather restrictive. The generalization of PT-symmetric potentials to wider classes of non-PT-symmetric complex potentials with all-real energy spectra is a currently important endeavor. A simple PT-symmetric two-level Floquet quantum system is now being actively explored, because it holds potential for the realization of non-unitary single-qubit quantum gate. However, studies of the evolution dynamics of non-PT-symmetric two-level non-Hermitian Floquet quantum system are still relatively rare. In this paper, we investigate the non-Hermitian physics of a periodically driven non-PT-symmetric two-level quantum system. By phase-space analysis, we find that there exist so-called pseudo fixed points in phase space representing the Floquet solutions with fixed population difference and a time-dependent relative phase between the two levels. According to these pseudo fixed points, we analytically construct a non-unitary evolution operator and then explore the dynamic behaviors of the non-PT-symmetric two-level quantum system in different parameter regions. We confirm both analytically and numerically that the two-level non-Hermitian Floquet quantum system, although it is non-parity-time-symmetric, still features a phase transition with the quasienergy spectrum changing from all-real to all-complex energy spectrum, just like the PT symmetric system. Furthermore, we reveal that a novel phenomenon called quasi-PT symmetric dynamics occurs in the time evolution process. The quasi-PT symmetric dynamics is so named in our paper, in the sense that the time-evolution of population probabilities in the non-PT-symmetric two-level system satisfies fully the time-space symmetry (PT symmetry), while time-evolution of the quantum state (containing the phase) does not meet such a PT symmetry, due to the fact that time-evolution of the phases of the probability amplitudes on the two levels violates the requirement for the PT symmetry.
In recent years, there have been intensive studies on non-Hermitian physics and parity-time (PT) symmetry, due to their fundamental importance in theory and outstanding applications. A distinctive character in PT-symmetric systems is phase transition (spontaneous PT-symmetry breaking), where the energy spectrum changes from all real to complex when the non-Hermitian parameter exceeds a certain threshold. However, the conditions for PT-symmetric system with real energy spectrum to occur are rather restrictive. Generalization of PT-symmetric potentials to wider classes of non-PT-symmetric complex potentials with all-real spectra is a currently important endeavor. The simple PT-symmetric two-level Floquet quantum system is now being actively explored, because it holds potential for realization of non-unitary single-qubit quantum gate. However, studies on the evolution dynamics of non-PT-symmetric two-level non-Hermitian Floquet quantum system still remain relatively rare. In this paper, we investigate the non-Hermitian physics of a periodically driven non-PT-symmetric two-level quantum system. By phase-space analysis, we find that there exist so-called pseudo fixed points in phase space representing the Floquet solutions with fixed population difference and a time-dependent relative phase between the two levels. Based on these pseudo fixed points, we analytically construct the non-unitary evolution operator and then explore the dynamics of the non-PT-symmetric two-level quantum system in different parameter regions. We confirm both analytically and numerically that the two-level non-Hermitian Floquet quantum system, although being non-parity-time-symmetric, still features a phase transition with the quasienergy spectrum changing from all real to complex, just as for PT symmetric systems. Furthermore, we reveal that a novel phenomenon called quasi-PT symmetric dynamics occurs in the time evolution process. The quasi-PT symmetric dynamics is so named in our paper, in the sense that the time-evolution of population probabilities in the non-PT-symmetric two-level system respects fully the time-space symmetry (PT symmetry), while time-evolution of the quantum state (containing the phase) does not, due to the fact that time-evolution of the phases of the probability amplitudes on the two levels violates the PT symmetry requirement.
Analysis of fundamentally open systems which exhibit both spatial reflection (parity) and time-reversal symmetry, called PT-symmetric [1] systems, has played an important role in understanding the dynamics of a broad class of non-Hermitian systems. Such systems support distinct regimes of stability and instability respectively, and the transition between these plays an important role in the system dynamics. We investigate a variety of non-Hermitian systems which exhibit a PT-symmetry breaking transition in both classical and quantum contexts using an array of theoretical and numerical approaches which are directly amenable to physical experiments. Organizationally, we divide these studies into those done on classical and quantum systems. Specifically for classical systems we analyze several interesting phenomena in the context of optical waveguide arrays. These provide an important testing ground for much of the discrete, PT-symmetric theory. In our case, we analyze PT-symmetric extensions of several interesting lattice models. Firstly, we explore single gain/loss pair, PT-symmetric extensions of the Su-Schreiffer-Heeger (SSH) model [2] and the Aubry-Andre-Harper (AAH) model [3,4]. In both cases, we find a veiled symmetry which is responsible for the PT-symmetry. Secondly we expand upon the Rudner-Levitov (RL) model [5,6], a non-Hermitian extension of the SSH model with multiple gain/loss pairs, and we explore the dependence of topological phenomena on changes in the initial state as well as their robustness in the presence of gain-induced nonlinearity. For quantum systems, we explore the rich PT-symmetric phase diagram resulting from time-periodic, Floquet PT-symmetry [7,8]. This is experimentally implementable in ultracold atomic systems [9], and features a reentrant PT-symmetric phase. Secondly, we examine quantum multi-photon statistics for a simple non-Hermitian model which is transformed and mapped to a system with unitary evolution via a unitary dilation, and is fully realizable on a small-scale quantum simulator [10].
The conventional time-dependent perturbation theory in quantum mechanics is established within the framework of Hermitian Hamiltonians, applicable for describing quantum transitions and associated energy level responses in such systems. However, this theory has fundamental limitations when applied to non-Hermitian systems. Consequently, researchers have systematically extended time-dependent perturbation theory to non-Hermitian systems, establishing a corresponding mature framework. Building on this foundation, this study extends the theory to investigate the transition dynamics induced by non-Hermitian interactions in non-Hermitian Hamiltonian systems. We employ a biorthogonal basis representation for a three-level non-Hermitian system. This work investigates a system comprising an unperturbed static non-Hermitian Hamiltonian and a periodically driven time-dependent perturbation Hamiltonian. Taking the three-level system as a concrete example, we combine analytical methods with numerical simulations to solve and analyze its dynamical evolution equations. These complementary approaches reveal that when system parameters complete a full cycle around an exceptional point, the transitional behavior exhibits specific evolutionary patterns. In this system, quantum transition probabilities exhibit significant asymmetry and non-conservation that depend on the initial and final states, revealing inherent directional characteristics in the dynamical process. Furthermore, for a three-level, periodically driven non-Hermitian system with time-dependent perturbations, this asymmetry is even more pronounced, manifesting as a distinct disparity between forward and reverse transition probabilities. The periodic driving actively amplifies the asymmetry in the transition process. By designing the perturbation spectrum, selective manipulation of specific quantum states can be achieved. Moreover, transition probabilities can be significantly enhanced under resonance conditions, while non-Hermiticity further breaks the system's inherent symmetry, leading to substantial amplification of transitions in a single direction. By precisely tuning the drive frequency, interactions between specific coupling channels can be selectively enhanced or suppressed. The amplification of channel asymmetry by non-Hermitian properties provides a novel mechanism for directional control of quantum states and opens new pathways for realizing related quantum technologies.
In this work, taking the most general non-Hermitian Hamiltonian without parity-time symmetry and with non-Hermitian off-diagonal elements into account, we study the exceptional points of the model system. We find that there exists an exceptional ellipse in theory, compared with the exceptional ring studied in non-Hermitian symmetry Hamiltonian, in which the parameters in the model Hamiltonian take particular values. We also report on the dynamics of the model Hamiltonian and symmetry Hamiltonian. We find that they display different dynamical behaviors under different parameters. Moreover, there exists an unstable behavior of the system. The unstable behavior has a surprising property by which the gain always dominates at long times no matter how small the gain is. This phenomenon enables the compensation for losses in dissipative systems and opens a wide range of applications in quantum optics, plasmonics, and optoelectronics, where the loss is inevitable but can be compensated by the gain.
It is well known that Hermitian operators have real eigenvalues while non-Hermitian ones may have complex eigenvalues. Recently, numerical and analytical results indicated that the spectra of many non-Hermitians Hamiltonians H are indeed real if they are invariant under the combined action of self-adjoint parity P and time reversal T. The concept of a pseudo-Hermitian operator showed that the remarkable spectral properties of the PT-symmetric Hamiltonians follow from their pseudo-Hermiticity. It is possible to explain these observations by the concept of pseudo-Hermitian operators and to formulate completeness and orthonormality relations. Most of the effort has been devoted to study time-independent non-Hermitian systems. In this paper, we study the exactly solvable time-dependent periodic pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians. The method introduced, to make the reality of eigenvalues and phases, is based on a Floquet decomposition of the evolution operator UH(t)=ZH(t)exp(iMHt) associated with the periodic pseudo-hermitian Hamiltonian H(t)=H(t+T). One of the results found in this paper concerns a calculation of Berry's phase for periodic, but not necessarily adiabatic, pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians. A two-level pseudo-Hermitian system is discussed as an illustrative example.