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arXiv:2504.10580 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Non-Hermitian multipole skin effects challenge localization

Jacopo Gliozzi, Federico Balducci, Taylor L. Hughes, Giuseppe De Tomasi

Published Feb 25, 2026• 3 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the effect of quenched disorder on the non-Hermitian skin effect in systems that conserve a U(1) charge and its associated multipole moments. In particular, we generalize the Hatano-Nelson argument for a localization transition in disordered, non-reciprocal systems to the interacting case. When only U(1) charge is conserved, we show that there is a transition between a skin effect phase, in which charges cluster at a boundary, and a many-body localized phase, in which charges localize at random positions. In the dynamics of entanglement, this coincides with an area to volume law transition. For systems without boundaries, the skin effect becomes a delocalized phase with a unidirectional current. If dipoles or higher multipoles are conserved, we show that the non-Hermitian skin effect remains stable to arbitrary disorder. Counterintuitively, the system is therefore always delocalized under periodic boundary conditions, regardless of disorder strength.

DOI
10.1103/c1jr-zqxg

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We study the effect of quenched disorder on the non-Hermitian skin effect in systems that conserve a U(1) charge and its associated multipole moments. In particular, we generalize the Hatano-Nelson argument for a localization transition in disordered, non-reciprocal systems to the interacting case. When only U(1) charge is conserved, we show that there is a transition between a skin effect phase, in which charges cluster at a boundary, and a many-body localized phase, in which charges localize at random positions. In the dynamics of entanglement, this coincides with an area to volume law transition. For systems without boundaries, the skin effect becomes a delocalized phase with a unidirectional current. If dipoles or higher multipoles are conserved, we show that the non-Hermitian skin effect remains stable to arbitrary disorder. Counterintuitively, the system is therefore always delocalized under periodic boundary conditions, regardless of disorder strength.
In this Letter, we investigate the fate of the non-Hermitian skin effect in one-dimensional systems that conserve the dipole moment and higher moments of an associated global U(1) charge. Motivated by field theoretical arguments and lattice model calculations, we demonstrate that the key feature of the non-Hermitian skin effect for m-pole conserving systems is the generation of an (m+1)th multipole moment. For example, in contrast to the conventional skin effect where charges are anomalously localized at one boundary, the dipole-conserving skin effect results in charges localized at both boundaries, in a configuration that generates an extremal quadrupole moment. In addition, we explore the dynamical consequences of the m-pole skin effect, focusing on charge and entanglement propagation. Both numerically and analytically, we provide evidence that long-time steady states have Fock-space localization and an area-law scaling of entanglement entropy, which serve as quantum indicators of the skin effect.
Non-Hermitian dynamics is ubiquitous in various physical systems. While recent study shows that such a dynamics leads to an area-law scaling of the entanglement entropy due to the non-Hermitian skin effects, it remains unclear how disorder changes the behavior of the entanglement entropy in a non-Hermitian system with skin effects. Here we study the dynamics of a many-body state of free fermions in the paradigmatic Hatano-Nelson model with open boundaries, and find that the area-law behavior of the entanglement entropy in the pristine Hatano-Nelson model develops into a logarithmic scaling for small disorder strength. As we further increase the disorder strength, the system reenters an area-law regime through an entanglement phase transition. At the critical point, the entanglement entropy exhibits a universal algebraic scaling. We further demonstrate the absence of a conformal invariance in the log-law regime by examining the subsystem entanglement entropy, the connected correlation function and the mutual information. Finally, we show the existence of disorder induced entanglement phase transitions in the Hatano-Nelson model with periodic boundaries.
The explorations of non-Hermiticity have been devoted to investigate the disorder-induced many-body localization (MBL). However, the sensitivity of the spatial boundary conditions and the interplay of the non-Hermitian skin effect with many-body phenomena are not yet clear. For a MBL system in the presence of nonreciprocal tunnelings and random disorder potential, we identify two different complex-real spectral transitions, one is present for both open and periodic boundaries while the other is present only for open boundaries of coupled non-Hermitian chains. The later is driven due to the interchain coupling at weak disorder where the level statistics of the real eigenenergy phase follows a Gaussian orthogonal ensemble. We further characterize wave functions through the (biorthogonal) inverse participation ratio and fractal dimension, which reveal the suppression of skin effect in the non-Hermitian MBL phase. Finally, we demonstrate that the quench dynamics of the local particle density, spin imbalance, and entanglement entropy also signify the hallmark of the boundary effects and nonergodic character of many-body localization.
The non-Hermitian systems exhibit extreme sensitivity to the boundary conditions. The change in the eigenspectrum with tuning boundary parameter is intimately connected to the non-Hermitian skin effect. The single-particle systems are affected by the boundary perturbations; however, the interplay of a random disorder potential and nonreciprocal hopping under boundary perturbations of an interacting many-body system is not yet clear. In this work, we examine the boundary sensitivity of a non-Hermitian interacting fermionic system in the presence of a random disorder potential. A nonzero boundary parameter results in real-complex spectral transitions with nonreciprocal (or unidirectional) hopping at weak disorder, while the many-body localization at strong disorder washes away real-complex transitions leading to dynamical stability and real eigenvalue spectrum. We show that the boundary-driven real-complex spectral transitions of the non-Hermitian chain are accompanied by the corresponding changes in the level statistics and nearest level-spacing distributions. The intriguing features of nonreciprocity and boundary sensitivity are further revealed using the averaged inverse participation ratios. Finally, we find distinct behavior in the quench dynamics of local particle density, population imbalance, and entanglement entropy of charge-density-wave ordered state that corroborate the real-complex and localization transitions. Our results provide a route to understanding disordered many-body systems under a generalized boundary.
Recent years have seen remarkable development in open quantum systems effectively described by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. A unique feature of non-Hermitian topological systems is the skin effect, anomalous localization of an extensive number of eigenstates driven by nonreciprocal dissipation. Despite its significance for non-Hermitian topological phases, the relevance of the skin effect to quantum entanglement and critical phenomena has remained unclear. Here, we find that the skin effect induces a nonequilibrium quantum phase transition in the entanglement dynamics. We show that the skin effect gives rise to a macroscopic flow of particles and suppresses the entanglement propagation and thermalization, leading to the area law of the entanglement entropy in the nonequilibrium steady state. Moreover, we reveal an entanglement phase transition induced by the competition between the unitary dynamics and the skin effect even without disorder or interactions. This entanglement phase transition accompanies nonequilibrium quantum criticality characterized by a nonunitary conformal field theory whose effective central charge is extremely sensitive to the boundary conditions. We also demonstrate that it originates from an exceptional point of the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian and the concomitant scale invariance of the skin modes localized according to the power law. Furthermore, we show that the skin effect leads to the purification and the reduction of von Neumann entropy even in Markovian open quantum systems described by the Lindblad master equation. Our work opens a way to control the entanglement growth and establishes a fundamental understanding of phase transitions and critical phenomena in open quantum systems far from thermal equilibrium.