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arXiv:2601.23015

Quasiperiodic Skin Criticality in an Exactly Solvable Non-Hermitian Quasicrystal

Zhangyuan Chen, Muhammad Idrees, Ying Yang, Xianqi Tong, Xiaosen Yang

cond-mat.mes-hallquant-phSubmitted Jan 30, 2026• Announced Feb 2, 2026
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Critical states in quasiperiodic systems defy the conventional dichotomy between extended and localized states. In this work, we demonstrate that non-Hermiticity fundamentally reshapes this paradigm by giving rise to an exactly solvable quasiperiodic critical phase with no energy selectivity. We introduce a non-Hermitian quasiperiodic lattice based on a modulated Hatano-Nelson model and uncover a new universality class of quasiperiodic skin criticality, in which all eigenstates share an identical multifractal spatial structure. Through a nonunitary gauge transformation, the system is mapped onto a disorder-free lattice, enabling exact analytical solutions for the full spectrum and eigenstates. As a consequence, the inverse participation ratio is strictly energy-independent and controlled solely by a global phase. We further show that this criticality persists in multiband lattices, establishing a general and analytically controlled framework for non-Hermitian quasiperiodic critical phenomena.

Journal reference
Phys. Rev. B 113, 235423(2026)
DOI
10.1103/wlsw-zyq9
Comments
10 pages, 6 figures. Comments are welcome

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Critical states in quasiperiodic systems defy the conventional dichotomy between extended and localized states. In this work, we demonstrate that non-Hermiticity fundamentally reshapes this paradigm by giving rise to an exactly solvable quasiperiodic critical phase with no energy selectivity. We introduce a non-Hermitian quasiperiodic lattice based on a modulated Hatano-Nelson model and uncover a new universality class of quasiperiodic skin criticality, in which all eigenstates share an identical multifractal spatial structure. Through a nonunitary gauge transformation, the system is mapped onto a disorder-free lattice, enabling exact analytical solutions for the full spectrum and eigenstates. As a consequence, the inverse participation ratio is strictly energy-independent and controlled solely by a global phase. We further show that this criticality persists in multiband lattices, establishing a general and analytically controlled framework for non-Hermitian quasiperiodic critical phenomena.
Quasiperiodic lattices can host critical eigenstates, whereas nonreciprocal hopping in non-Hermitian lattices can induce non-Hermitian skin effect. In this work, we investigate localization phenomena in a Hatano--Nelson model with quasiperiodically modulated hopping amplitudes, where nonreciprocity arises from unequal modulation strengths of the right and left hoppings. Using a non-unitary gauge transformation, we map the non-Hermitian system into a Hermitian quasiperiodic system and obtain an exact analytical expression for the Lyapunov exponent in the thermodynamic limit. Under periodic boundary conditions, inverse participation ratios and finite-size scaling analysis are used to identify the quasiperiodic critical regimes. The comparison shows that parameter regimes hosting quasiperiodic critical states under periodic boundary conditions can exhibit the non-Hermitian skin effect under open boundary conditions. Furthermore, the non-Hermitian skin effect associated with quasiperiodic critical regimes is also observed in representative long-range hopping models and multiband extensions. Our results provide an analytically controlled perspective on how quasiperiodicity, modulated nonreciprocity, and boundary conditions jointly shape the non-Hermitian skin effect in critical regimes.
We investigate the interplay between the non-Hermitian skin effect and Aubry-André-Harper (AAH) quasiperiodic disorder in a one-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chain with nonreciprocal hopping. By exact diagonalization, transfer-matrix analysis, and an analytical similarity-transformation argument, we map the full ( , δδδ) phase diagram, where A is the AAH modulation strength and the nonreciprocity parameter. We identify five distinct regimes: ( ) topological with extended bulk, (II) AAH-localized, (III) skin-localized, (IV) fully localized, and a previously unreported (V) competition regime exhibiting reentrant partial delocalization, in which intermediate quasiperiodic disorder disrupts the directional skin accumulation before ultimately Anderson-localizing all states. Using phase-averaged diagnostics and finite-size scaling, we confirm that the reentrant regime is robust, characterized by a non-monotonic inverse participation ratio that sharpens with increasing system size. We derive an analytical expression for the modified localization boundary λc(δ)=2veffwλ_{c}(δ)=2\sqrt{v_{eff}w}λc​(δ)=2veff​w​ with vvff=v2−δ2v_{vff}=\sqrt{v^{2}-δ^{2}}vvff​=v2−δ2​, which agrees with numerical Lyapunov exponent calculations. We further show that quasiperiodic disorder progressively unwinds the complex spectral loops, destroying the point-gap topology at a critical strength distinct from the band-topological transition ; that the skin effect suppresses entanglement entropy to near-zero values while sufficiently strong AAH disorder partially restores it ; and that the SSH sublattice structure absent in the widely studied non-Hermitian AAH chain is essential for producing the five-phase landscape, as demonstrated by direct comparison with the non-dimerized limit.
The mobility ring (MR), a critical boundary in the complex energy plane separating extended and localized states, is fundamental to understanding the Anderson transition in non-Hermitian (NH) disordered systems. While MRs have been extensively studied in one-dimensional (1D) NH quasiperiodic models, rigorous analytical frameworks beyond 1D remain critically scarce. Here, we investigate a class of two-dimensional (2D) quasiperiodically decorated Lieb lattices (QDLLs) featuring complex incommensurate potentials selectively applied to the lattice vertices. By exactly mapping these 2D structures onto NH generalized Aubry-Andr{é}-Harper (AAH) models and leveraging extended-localized transition point, we analytically derive the Lyapunov exponents and obtain exact expressions for the MRs. These exact theoretical boundaries are strongly corroborated by numerical computations of wavefunction fractal dimensions and real-space probability distributions. Furthermore, we reveal distinct evolutionary behaviors of the MRs driven by the quasiperiodic potential strength: systems characterized by κ=2κ=2κ=2 possess a single MR, whereas systems with κ=3κ=3κ=3 undergo a dynamic sequential evolution from a single integrated ring into two independent rings. We hope that our exact results of MRs in 2D will benefit the study of Anderson localizations and MRs in high-dimensional NH systems.
Non-Hermitian systems exhibit unique spectral properties, including the non-Hermitian skin effect and exceptional points, often influenced by boundary conditions. The modulation of these phenomena by generalized boundary conditions remains unexplored and not understood. Here, we analyze the Hatano-Nelson model with generalized boundary conditions induced by complex hopping amplitudes at the boundary. Using similarity transformations, we determine the conditions yielding real energy spectra and skin effect, and identify the emergence of exceptional points where spectra transition from real to complex. We demonstrate that tuning the boundary hopping amplitudes precisely controls the non-Hermitian skin effect, i.e., the localization of eigenmodes at the lattice edges. These findings reveal the sensitivity of spectral and localization properties to boundary conditions, providing a framework for engineering quantum lattice models with tailored spectral and localization features, with potential applications in quantum devices.
Localization in non-Hermitian quasicrystals can differ fundamentally from its Hermitian counterpart when non-reciprocity is spatially disordered. Here we study a one-dimensional non-Hermitian Aubry-André-Harper chain with a Bernoulli imaginary gauge field and quasiperiodic onsite modulation. In the nearest-neighbor limit, we identify an anomalous transition from a fully erratic non-Hermitian skin effect (ENHSE) phase to a fully localized phase. Although the fractal dimension vanishes in both regimes, the Lyapunov exponent and the fluctuation of the eigenstate center of mass sharply distinguish them. For generic finite-size realizations, this transition is further accompanied by a complex-to-real spectral change under periodic boundary conditions and a change of spectral winding from nontrivial to trivial. With weak next-nearest-neighbor hopping, we uncover an anomalous mobility edge at the same location as in the Hermitian generalized Aubry-André-Harper model, but separating Anderson-localized states from ENHSE-type macroscopic-accumulation states rather than extended states. We further show that this anomalous localization structure is reflected in spectral winding and wave-packet dynamics: single realizations exhibit winding-dependent drift, winding-resolved averaging preserves opposite directional responses, and full disorder averaging largely restores Hermitian-like transport. Our results establish practical diagnostics of anomalous localization and mobility edges in non-Hermitian quasicrystals.
Abstract We study a non-Hermitian Ising chain with a power-law quasiperiodic field h j = h cos p (2 παj + φ ), where the positive integer p controls the power of the modulation. The model admits an exact site-factorized similarity transformation that maps the quasi-Hermitian regime onto a real quasiperiodic Ising chain. We derive the exact zero-mode edge-localization boundary and show that the critical field on the quasi-Hermitian branch scales as 2 p , while the associated localization-length exponent remains unity for all p . At the boundary, the variance of the logarithmic coupling fluctuations is enhanced exactly by a factor of p 2 . In the quasi-Hermitian regime, the factorized similarity transformation shows that the spatial biorthogonal entanglement spectrum is identical to that of the Hermitian counterpart. The half-chain entanglement entropy exhibits approximately logarithmic growth over the accessible sizes, with a p -dependent finite-size slope. We finally discuss a possible realization using state-selective loss and conditional no-jump dynamics.