The optimal transport problem seeks to minimize the total transportation cost between two distributions, thus providing a measure of distance between them. In this work, we study the optimal transport of the eigenspectrum of one-dimensional non-Hermitian models as the spectrum deforms on the complex plane under a varying imaginary gauge field. Notably, according to the non-Bloch band theory, the deforming spectrum continuously connects the eigenspectra of the original non-Hermitian model (with vanishing gauge field) under different boundary conditions. It follows that the optimal spectral transport should contain key information of the model. Characterizing the optimal spectral transport through the Wasserstein metric, we show that, indeed, important features of the non-Hermitian model, such as the (auxiliary) generalized Brillouin zone, the non-Bloch exceptional point, and topological phase transition, can be determined from the Wasserstein-metric calculation. We confirm our conclusions using concrete examples. Our work highlights the key role of spectral geometry in non-Hermitian physics, and offers a practical and convenient access to the properties of non-Hermitian models.
The optimal transport problem seeks to minimize the total transportation cost between two distributions, thus providing a measure of distance between them. In this work, we study the optimal transport of the eigenspectrum of one-dimensional non-Hermitian models as the spectrum deforms on the complex plane under a varying imaginary gauge field. Notably, according to the non-Bloch band theory, the deforming spectrum continuously connects the eigenspectra of the original non-Hermitian model (with vanishing gauge field) under different boundary conditions. It follows that the optimal spectral transport should contain key information of the model. Characterizing the optimal spectral transport through the Wasserstein metric, we show that, indeed, important features of the non-Hermitian model, such as the (auxiliary) generalized Brillouin zone, the non-Bloch exceptional point, and topological phase transition, can be determined from the Wasserstein-metric calculation. We confirm our conclusions using concrete examples. Our work highlights the key role of spectral geometry in non-Hermitian physics, and offers a practical and convenient access to the properties of non-Hermitian models.
Open systems feature a variety of phenomena that arise from non-Hermitian physics. Recent theoretical studies have offered much insights into these phenomena through the non-Bloch band theory, though many of the theory's key features are experimentally elusive. For instance, the correspondence between complex momenta and non-Hermitian bands, while central to non-Bloch band theory, has so far defied direct experimental observation. Here we experimentally study the non-Hermitian spectral deformation in complex-momentum space, by implementing a non-Hermitian lattice with long-range couplings in the synthetic orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) dimension of photons inside a degenerate cavity. Encoding the complex momenta in the phase and amplitude modulations of the OAM modes, and devising a complex-momentum-resolved projective detection, we reconstruct the spectral deformation in momentum space, where the eigenspectrum on the complex plane morphs through distinct geometries. This enables us to experimentally extract key information of the system under the non-Bloch band theory, including exceptional points in the complex-momentum space, the open-boundary spectra, and the generalized Brillouin zone. Our work demonstrates a versatile platform for exploring non-Hermitian physics and non-Bloch band theory, and opens the avenue for direct experimental investigation of non-Bloch features in the complex-momentum space.
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.
We extend the generalized transfer-matrix method introduced in [H. Ghaemi-Dizicheh, Phys.\ Rev.\ B \textbf{107}, 125155 (2023)] to one-dimensional spinful non-Hermitian tight-binding lattices with matrix-valued Abelian and non-Abelian gauge couplings. We derive a minimal channel-resolved transfer matrix and identify its eigenvalues with the generalized Bloch factors. The same transfer matrix determines the periodic- and open-boundary spectra, generalized Brillouin zone, skin localization, and finite-sample scattering conditions. In the Abelian limit, the model separates into fixed spin sectors, yielding exact spectral results and closed finite-length transport expressions in terms of Chebyshev polynomials. These results reveal bipolar spin-dependent skin localization and distinguish the reciprocal hopping scale, which governs poles, zeros, and reflectionlessness, from the directed-amplification factor controlling transmission asymmetry, transparency, and invisibility. For non-Abelian gauge fields, noncommuting link matrices coherently mix the spin sectors, such that four transfer eigenmodes jointly determine the non-Bloch spectrum and transport eigenchannels. We show that this mixing produces spin-hybridized lasing and coherent-perfect-absorption channels, Zeeman-tunable lasing thresholds, and direction-dependent reflectionless transport accompanied by pronounced spin conversion. The resulting boundary-condition criteria describe lasing, coherent perfect absorption, reflectionlessness, transparency, and invisibility, while identifying spin polarization and conversion as experimentally accessible signatures that distinguish Abelian from non-Abelian non-Hermitian transport.
We develop a comprehensive, gauge-covariant geometric framework for non-Hermitian quantum systems in the quasi-Hermitian regime, that is, the region of parameter space where the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian admits a real spectrum and a positive-definite metric operator. We build this framework by elevating the Dyson map to a central geometric object. This map is the transformation that converts a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian into an equivalent Hermitian one. From it we construct the Dyson connection and decompose it into Hermitian and anti-Hermitian parts, identified respectively as {\it stretching } and {\it rotation } components. This decomposition cleanly separates the genuine physical metric deformations from the unitary gauge redundancies. Working with manifestly gauge-covariant states, we then derive the complex non-Hermitian Berry phase and the quantum geometric tensor (QGT), and show that the non-Hermitian geometric curvature originates from the non-commutativity of the stretching components at the operator level. We further analyse the geometric singularities near an exceptional point (EP) and uncover a distinct hierarchy of divergences. For a general two-level non-Hermitian model, the quantum metric tensor (QMT) exhibits a leading-order divergence ∼∣εμ∣−2, while the Berry curvature shows a weaker, subleading divergence ∼∣εμ∣−3/2, with εμ denoting the parameter displacement from the EP along an individual parameter axis μ. Finally, we examine physical realizations of this model, including the non-Hermitian Su--Schrieffer--Heeger (SSH) and Hatano--Nelson (HN) models, where exact analytical results confirm the predicted critical scaling laws and illustrate the metric-deformation-driven non-Hermitian geometries.
In general, the energy spectrum of a non-Hermitian system turns out to be complex, which is not very satisfactory since the time evolution of eigenstates with complex eigenvalues is either exponentially growing or decaying. Here, we provide a sufficient and necessary condition of the real spectrum under open boundary conditions for one-dimensional non-Hermitian tight-binding Hamiltonians. The necessity is directly related to the fact that the generalized Brillouin zone in one dimension is a closed loop whose origin is in its interior. We also establish the sufficiency by analytically determining when the preimage of the characteristic polynomial contains a loop and showing that this loop is just the generalized Brillouin zone itself, using some simple models first and then general one-band models. We demonstrate our conclusions on various non-Hermitian model examples with longer-range hopping. Our results indicate that real spectra are more common than one may have expected in non-Hermitian systems and are helpful for designing non-Hermitian models with real spectra.
Quantum matter emerges from the interplay of fluctuations, topology, and entanglement, which - in equilibrium - governs quantized transport, universal criticality, and topological classification. Non-Hermitian systems, widely explored in platforms ranging from electric circuits to photonics, are intrinsically out-of-equilibrium, and display fundamentally new phenomena, including complex spectra, spectral winding, exceptional topology, and non-unitary dynamics. A central challenge is understanding how the complex single-particle spectrum governs universal many-body behavior. We introduce a symmetry-protected dynamical topological index derived directly from the complex spectrum. Through the lens of algebraic topology, more specifically Morse theory, we identify critical points in the spectrum with topological defects, whose curvature and stability are protected under continuous deformations. This links spectral geometry to many-body observables, unifying non-Hermitian band topology, entanglement, and transport. We demonstrate that non-Hermitian quantum criticality in non-interacting systems is controlled by gain-and-loss-selected non-equilibrium steady states, which dynamically generate an emergent imaginary Fermi surface whose Fermi points host scale-invariant gapless modes with logarithmic entanglement scaling and algebraic correlations. Our work establishes a unified framework for non-Hermitian quantum matter, connecting spectral topology to Morse theory, revealing a topological foundation of non-equilibrium quantum criticality.