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arXiv:2306.16235 · iScience

Local non-Hermitian Hamiltonian formalism for dissipative fermionic systems and loss-induced population increase in Fermi superfluids

Teng Xiao, Gentaro Watanabe A

Published May 13, 2025• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We examine a standard scheme to obtain the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian (NHH) from the Lindblad master equation by neglecting its jump term, and propose an alternative approach to address its limitations. The NHH obtained by the conventional scheme fails to provide a good approximation for fermionic many-body systems, even on short timescales. To resolve this issue, we present a framework called the local NHH formalism, which describes the loss process in each individual mode locally. This formalism is applicable to general dissipative fermionic systems and remains consistent with the underlying Lindblad master equation at the level of the equations of motion of local observables. The local NHH formalism also provides a convenient framework for spectral analysis, compared to the Lindblad master equation. As an illustration, we consider a fermionic superfluid subject to one-body loss and find the loss-induced population increase. The conventional NHH fails to capture these unique phenomena.

DOI
10.1016/j.isci.2025.112641

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We examine a standard scheme to obtain the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian (NHH) from the Lindblad master equation by neglecting its jump term, and propose an alternative approach to address its limitations. The NHH obtained by the conventional scheme fails to provide a good approximation for fermionic many-body systems, even on short timescales. To resolve this issue, we present a framework called the local NHH formalism, which describes the loss process in each individual mode locally. This formalism is applicable to general dissipative fermionic systems and remains consistent with the underlying Lindblad master equation at the level of the equations of motion of local observables. The local NHH formalism also provides a convenient framework for spectral analysis, compared to the Lindblad master equation. As an illustration, we consider a fermionic superfluid subject to one-body loss and find the loss-induced population increase. The conventional NHH fails to capture these unique phenomena.
We generalize the theory of flow equations to open quantum systems focusing on Lindblad master equations. We introduce and discuss three different generators of the flow that transform a linear non-Hermitian operator into a diagonal one. We first test our dissipative flow equations on a generic matrix and on a physical problem with a driven-dissipative single fermionic mode. We then move to problems with many fermionic modes and discuss the interplay between coherent (disordered) dynamics and localized losses. Our method can also be applied to non-Hermitian Hamiltonians.
One possible realization of non-Hermitian systems is based on open quantum systems by omitting quantum jumping terms in the master equation. This is a good approximation at short times where the effects of quantum jumps can be ignored. However, the jumps can affect the long-time dynamics of the system, motivating us to take the jumps into account in these studies. In this paper, by treating the quantum jumps as perturbations, we examine the effect of the quantum jumps on the non-Hermitian system. For this purpose, we first derive an effective Hamiltonian to describe the dynamics of the open quantum system based on the master equation, then expand the eigenstates and eigenenergies up to the first and second order in the quantum jumps. Finally, we apply our theory to a dissipative two-level system and dissipative fermionic superfluids. The effect of the quantum jump on the dynamics and the nonequilibrium phase transition is demonstrated and discussed.
We investigate the dynamical properties of one-dimensional dissipative Fermi-Hubbard models, which are described by the Lindblad master equations with site-dependent jump operators. The corresponding non-Hermitian effective Hamiltonians with pure loss terms possess parity-time (PT\mathcal{PT}PT) symmetry if we compensate the system additionally with an overall gain term. By solving exactly the two-site Lindblad equation with fixed dissipation, we find that the dynamics of the rescaled density matrix shows an instability as the interaction increases over a threshold, which can be equivalently described in the scheme of non-Hermitian effective Hamiltonians. This instability is also observed in multisite systems and closely related to the PT\mathcal{PT}PT-symmetry breaking accompanied by appearance of complex eigenvalues of the effective Hamiltonian. Moreover, we unveil that the dynamical instability of the antiferromagnetic Mott phase comes from the PT\mathcal{PT}PT-symmetry breaking in highly excited bands, although the low-energy effective model of the non-Hermitian Hubbard model in the strongly interacting regime is always Hermitian. We also provide a quantitative estimation of the time for the observation of dynamical PT\mathcal{PT}PT-symmetry breaking which could be probed in experiments.
The study of many-body quantum physics has been recently challenged by the appearance of an increasing number of experimental platforms where genuine quantum phenomena take place notwithstanding the presence of an environment and of dissipation. Exciton-polaritons, lossy atomic and molecular gases, cavity QED arrays, arrays of trapped ions and Rydberg atoms, are only few prominent examples of a long list. The present work is ideally divided into two parts, the former is devoted to methodological results; the latter to the theoretical characterization of experimental data. Whereas the notion of equilibrium has been a fruitful guide to the development of standard many-body physics, these setups are inherently out of equilibrium and their modelisation requires the introduction of new theoretical tools. Several methods for addressing this dissipative out-of-equilibrium dynamics have been proposed, based for instance on quantum trajectories, truncated Wigner expansions, tensor networks, machine learning, but the solution of many-body physics for open quantum systems remains a formidable task. Clearly, techniques developed in the framework of Hamiltonian closed systems are a continuous source of inspiration for novel developments, and in this work we present the generalization of one such technique, the so-called flow equations, to the dissipative framework where the generator of the dynamics is a linear non-Hermitian operator; notable examples include non-Hermitian Hamiltonians and Lindblad master equations. In the second part of this work we focus on two-body lossy dynamics in strongly-correlated cold atomic gases. In particular, we derive an effective description for the long-time dynamics of a spin ½ fermionic system by extending a pre-existing theory for the bosonic case.
Abstract Non-Hermitian (NH) systems and the Lindblad form master equation have always been regarded as reliable tools in dissipative modeling. Intriguingly, existing literature often obtains an equivalent NH Hamiltonian by neglecting the quantum jumping terms in the master equation. However, there lacks investigation into the effects of discarded terms as well as the unified connection between these two approaches. In this study, we study the Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model with collective loss and gain from a topological perspective. When the system undergoes no quantum jump events, the corresponding shape matrix exhibits the same topological properties in contrast to the traditional NH theory. Conversely, the occurrence of quantum jumps can result in a shift in the positions of the phase transition. Our study provides a qualitative analysis of the impact of quantum jumping terms and reveals their unique role in quantum systems.
Abstract We investigate the dynamics of an open quantum system comprising a two-level electronic system coupled to local boson mode and a bosonic bath. The system is described by four distinct states, including the ground and excited electronic states, each with its corresponding zero- and one-boson vibrational levels. The dissipative dynamics arising from interactions with an external environment are modeled using two distinct theoretical frameworks: the standard Lindblad master equation and a non-Hermitian effective Hamiltonian approach. We derive the full Liouvillian superoperator for both formalisms, revealing a crucial distinction: while the Lindblad equation accounts for both state decay and repopulation via quantum jumps, the non-Hermitian formalism only captures the decay, leading to non-conservation of the total system probability.