The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) is a fascinating phenomenon in nonequilibrium systems where eigenstates massively localize at the systems’ boundaries, pumping (quasi-)particles loaded in these systems unidirectionally to the boundaries. Its interplay with many-body effects has been widely explored recently, and inter-particle repulsion or Fermi degeneracy pressure have been shown to limit the boundary accumulation induced by the NHSE both in their eigensolutions and dynamics. However, in this work we find that anyonic statistics can even more profoundly affect the NHSE dynamics, suppressing or even reversing the state dynamics against the localizing direction of the NHSE. This phenomenon is found to be more pronounced when more particles are involved. The spreading of quantum information in this system shows even more exotic phenomena, where NHSE affects only the information dynamics for a thermal ensemble, but not that for a single initial state. Our results open up a new avenue on exploring novel non-Hermitian phenomena arisen from the interplay between NHSE and anyonic statistics, and can potentially be demonstrated in ultracold atomic quantum simulators and quantum computers. Anyons are a general class of particles with unusual statistics beyond conventional bosons and fermions. In this work, the authors reveal that anyonic statistics can profoundly affect the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) dynamically, suppressing or even reversing the NHSE-induced unidirectional evolution of both state dynamics and quantum information spreading, while keeping qualitatively the same skin-localization of static eigensolutions.
The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) is a fascinating phenomenon in nonequilibrium systems where eigenstates massively localize at the systems’ boundaries, pumping (quasi-)particles loaded in these systems unidirectionally to the boundaries. Its interplay with many-body effects has been widely explored recently, and inter-particle repulsion or Fermi degeneracy pressure have been shown to limit the boundary accumulation induced by the NHSE both in their eigensolutions and dynamics. However, in this work we find that anyonic statistics can even more profoundly affect the NHSE dynamics, suppressing or even reversing the state dynamics against the localizing direction of the NHSE. This phenomenon is found to be more pronounced when more particles are involved. The spreading of quantum information in this system shows even more exotic phenomena, where NHSE affects only the information dynamics for a thermal ensemble, but not that for a single initial state. Our results open up a new avenue on exploring novel non-Hermitian phenomena arisen from the interplay between NHSE and anyonic statistics, and can potentially be demonstrated in ultracold atomic quantum simulators and quantum computers. Anyons are a general class of particles with unusual statistics beyond conventional bosons and fermions. In this work, the authors reveal that anyonic statistics can profoundly affect the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) dynamically, suppressing or even reversing the NHSE-induced unidirectional evolution of both state dynamics and quantum information spreading, while keeping qualitatively the same skin-localization of static eigensolutions.
The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE), the accumulation of eigen-wave functions at boundaries of open systems, underlies a variety of exotic properties that defy conventional wisdom. While the NHSE and its intriguing impact on band topology and dynamics have been observed in classical or photonic systems, their demonstration in a quantum gas system remains elusive. Here we report the experimental realization of a dissipative Aharonov-Bohm chain-non-Hermitian topological model with NHSE-in the momentum space of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate. We identify signatures of the NHSE in the condensate dynamics, and perform Bragg spectroscopy to resolve topological edge states against a background of localized bulk states. Our Letter sets the stage for further investigation on the interplay of many-body statistics and interactions with the NHSE, and is a significant step forward in the quantum control and simulation of non-Hermitian physics.
The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) represents one of the most distinctive phenomena in non-Hermitian physics. Here, we uncover a new drag-induced NHSE mechanism in interacting Bose--Fermi mixtures where only bosons, but not fermions, experience asymmetric hopping.We show that strong Bose--Fermi interactions enable fermions to inherit boundary accumulation through correlated bound states.The interplay of interactions, quantum statistics, and non-Hermitian dynamics gives rise to an interaction-induced blockade mechanism, leading to highly asymmetric fermionic transport.We demonstrate that the drag-induced NHSE is dynamically stable and propose a feasible realization in ultracold Bose--Fermi mixtures with Floquet-engineered asymmetric tunneling.Our results establish a qualitatively distinct route to the NHSE, where non-Hermitian localization is not generated by direct nonreciprocal hopping of the localized particles themselves, but emerges through the interaction-mediated transfer of non-Hermitian dynamics between different quantum species. This mechanism further provides a potential route toward species-selective control of localization and transport in hybrid quantum matter.
Abstract Non-Hermitian physics has attracted considerable attention in the recent years, in particular the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) for its extreme sensitivity and non-locality. While the NHSE has been physically observed in various classical metamaterials and even ultracold atomic arrays, its highly-nontrivial implications in many-body dynamics have never been experimentally investigated. In this work, we report the first observation of the NHSE on a universal quantum processor, as well as its characteristic but elusive Fermi skin from many-fermion statistics. To implement NHSE dynamics on a quantum computer, the effective time-evolution circuit not only needs to be non-reciprocal and non-unitary, but must also be scaled up to a sufficient number of lattice qubits to achieve spatial non-locality. We show how such a non-unitary operation can be systematically realized by post-selecting multiple ancilla qubits, as demonstrated through two paradigmatic non-reciprocal models on a noisy IBM quantum processor, with clear signatures of asymmetric spatial propagation and many-body Fermi skin accumulation. To minimize errors from inevitable device noise, time evolution is performed using a trainable optimized quantum circuit produced with variational quantum algorithms. Our study represents a critical milestone in the quantum simulation of non-Hermitian lattice phenomena on present-day quantum computers, and can be readily generalized to more sophisticated many-body models with the remarkable programmability of quantum computers.
The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE), featured by the collapse of bulk-band eigenstates into the localized boundary modes of the systems, is one of most striking properties in the fields of non-Hermitian physics. Unique physical phenomena related to the NHSE have attracted a lot of interest, however, their experimental realizations usually require nonreciprocal hopping, which faces a great challenge in ultracold-atom systems. In this work, we propose to realize the NHSE in a 1D optical lattice by periodically-driven ultracold atoms in the presence of staggered atomic loss. By studying the effective Floquet Hamiltonian in the high-frequency approximation, we reveal the underlying mechanism for the periodic-driving-induced the NHSE. We found that the robust NHSE can be tuned by driving phase, which is manifested by the dynamical localization. Most remarkably, we uncover the periodic-driving-induced critical skin effect for two coupled chains with different driving phases, accompanied by the appearance of size-dependent topological in-gap modes. Our studies provide a feasible way for observing the NHSE and exploring corresponding unique physical phenomena due to the interplay of non-Hermiticity and many-body statistics in ultracold-atom systems.
The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE), characterized by the collapse of bulk-band eigenstates into the localized boundary modes of the systems, is one of most striking properties in the field of non-Hermitian physics. Unique physical phenomena related to the NHSE have attracted a great deal of interest; however, their experimental realization usually requires nonreciprocal hopping, which faces a great challenge in ultracold-atom systems. In this work we propose the realization of the NHSE in a one-dimensional optical lattice by periodically driven ultracold atoms in the presence of staggered atomic loss. By studying the effective Floquet Hamiltonian in the high-frequency approximation, we reveal the underlying mechanism for the periodic-driving-induced NHSE. We find that the robust NHSE can be tuned by the driving phase, which is manifested by the dynamical localization. Most remarkably, we uncover the periodic-driving-induced critical skin effect for two coupled chains with different driving phases, accompanied by the appearance of size-dependent topological in-gap modes. Our study provides a feasible way to observe the NHSE and explore the corresponding unique physical phenomena due to the interplay of non-Hermiticity and many-body statistics in ultracold-atom systems.
The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) refers to the accumulation of an extensive number of eigenstates at system boundaries under open boundary conditions (OBCs). As a dynamical consequence, wave packets in such systems drift and ultimately accumulate at a boundary, giving rise to the dynamical skin effect (DSE). While strong quasiperiodic potentials are known to suppress the DSE by inducing localization, we show that the introduction of Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) noise unexpectedly restores it. Using perturbative analysis, we demonstrate that noise effectively maps the non-Hermitian Schrödinger dynamics onto a non-reciprocal master equation, whose complex spectrum develops a noise-induced point gap. This mechanism enables delocalization, reinstates directional transport, and revives the DSE even in regimes where the static NHSE is absent. Moreover, the relaxation dynamics exhibit a non-monotonic dependence on noise strength, reflecting a competition between noise-assisted delocalization and noise-induced decoherence. Our results uncover a noise-enabled mechanism for resurrecting the DSE and suggest a new route for controlling transport in quasiperiodic, open quantum systems.