We formulate an exact Green-function theory for non-Hermitian single-microwave-photon scattering by finite superconducting circuit subsystems embedded in an SSH waveguide. The structured SSH environment is integrated out exactly and enters the local scattering problem as an energy-dependent matrix self-energy, reducing the full open system to a finite-dimensional effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. This reduction places scattering amplitudes, exceptional-point diagnostics, coherent-perfect-absorption conditions, and lasing thresholds within one unified framework. Within this approach we analyze two superconducting devices. A flux-controlled two-qubit interferometric scatterer exhibits a broad bright branch and a narrow quasi-dark branch whose interference is reshaped by the SSH environment and changes qualitatively across the two dimerizations. A mediator-assisted two-qubit scatterer generates an additional energy-dependent complex coupling, reorganizes the dressed spectrum, and produces clearer dimerization-sensitive transparency-versus-absorption windows together with a pronounced separation between zero-like and pole-like scattering branches. In the active regime, near-exceptional-point hybridization enhances the pole-dominated response while deepening the singular-value valley associated with near-coherent perfect absorption. These results show how structured topological waveguides can be used not only to host scattering, but also to design non-Hermitian superconducting microwave functionalities.
We formulate an exact Green-function theory for non-Hermitian single-microwave-photon scattering by finite superconducting circuit subsystems embedded in an SSH waveguide. The structured SSH environment is integrated out exactly and enters the local scattering problem as an energy-dependent matrix self-energy, reducing the full open system to a finite-dimensional effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. This reduction places scattering amplitudes, exceptional-point diagnostics, coherent-perfect-absorption conditions, and lasing thresholds within one unified framework. Within this approach we analyze two superconducting devices. A flux-controlled two-qubit interferometric scatterer exhibits a broad bright branch and a narrow quasi-dark branch whose interference is reshaped by the SSH environment and changes qualitatively across the two dimerizations. A mediator-assisted two-qubit scatterer generates an additional energy-dependent complex coupling, reorganizes the dressed spectrum, and produces clearer dimerization-sensitive transparency-versus-absorption windows together with a pronounced separation between zero-like and pole-like scattering branches. In the active regime, near-exceptional-point hybridization enhances the pole-dominated response while deepening the singular-value valley associated with near-coherent perfect absorption. These results show how structured topological waveguides can be used not only to host scattering, but also to design non-Hermitian superconducting microwave functionalities.
We study single-photon scattering in a Su--Schrieffer--Heeger (SSH) photonic lattice locally coupled to a superconducting qubit with tunable loss or gain. Working in the single-excitation sector, we derive an explicit real-space scattering formulation for the full energy-dependent scattering matrix S(E) and identify how its eigenvalues encode coherent perfect absorption, amplification, and spectral singular behavior. The analytical results are benchmarked against time-domain wave-packet simulations, which reproduce the stationary scattering probabilities with high accuracy. We show that the SSH dimerization, the qubit-induced non-Hermitian self-energy, and the synthetic gauge phase cooperate to reshape the reflection and transmission spectra in a highly selective way. In particular, changing the dimerization can switch the system between transmission-dominated and reflection-dominated regimes, while the flux provides a direct handle on interference and symmetry-controlled response. We also find a robust loss--gain correspondence in the reflection landscape and show that the linewidth broadening is governed predominantly by the magnitude ∣γ∣ of the non-Hermitian coupling. These results establish a compact and experimentally relevant framework for topological scattering in superconducting quantum networks.
The giant-atom topological-waveguide-QED systems have recently emerged as a promising platform for manipulating light-matter interactions. The combination of the multiple-point couplings and topological phase effect could lead to rich physical phenomena and effects. Here, we study single-photon scattering in a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) waveguide coupled to either one or two two-level giant atoms. We assume that each giant atom is coupled to the waveguide via two coupling points and hence there exist four and sixteen coupling configurations for the single-giant-atom case and two-giant-atom separate coupling case, respectively. By solving the single-photon scattering problem in the real space, we obtain the exact expressions of the single-photon scattering amplitudes. It is found that a single photon in the SSH waveguide can be completely reflected or transmitted by choosing proper coupling configurations, coupling-point distances, atomic resonance frequency, and dimerization parameter. In addition, under proper parameter conditions, the scattering spectra are periodically modulated by the coupling-point distances. We also find that the collective behavior of the two giant atoms can be adjusted by quantum interference effect and topological effect and that the single-photon scattering spectra can exhibit the Lorentzian, super-Gaussian, electromagnetically induced transparencylike, and asymmetric Fano line shapes for some coupling configurations. This work will inspire the development of controllable single-photon devices based on the giant-atom topological-waveguide-QED systems.
As quantum systems are understood better from a fundamental physics perspective, we are gaining more insight and ideas for their many applications. Among them are quantum computation, sensing, and materials. Some difficulties that have been encountered are short lifetimes and coupling to unwanted modes while attempting to control these systems, resulting in error propagation. Previously, physicists have pursued Hermitian descriptions of systems to preserve unitary evolution and real-valued measurements. However, non-Hermitian systems not only provide a realistic description of physical systems within larger environments, but also a rich topological landscape from their complex energy spectrum. In this thesis, we will explore how to control a non-Hermitian qubit to utilize its complex spectrum and the role of its Hamiltonian in energetics and time dynamics. Because superconducting qubits offer flexibility in parameter tuning, we can tune the values of the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian to explore this complex spectrum across regions of both $\PT$-symmetry and $\PT$-symmetry breaking. This complex energy spectrum forms a Riemann surface that has a branch cut and branch points (exceptional points). Encircling these exceptional points adiabatically allows for state transport that can non-trivially convert between eigenstates. Previous experimental studies of this process revealed a chirality: eigenstate conversion occurs when following the state with higher gain, but breaks down when following the state with higher loss. We explore how the interplay between gain and loss in modes of the system results in the breakdown of this adiabaticity and how we can use a method based on shortcuts to adiabaticity to circumvent this. Finally, we leverage this tunability to further investigate how the components of the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian relate to classical thermodynamic notions of internal energy and work in time-dependent protocols via the Jarzynski equality.
Non-Hermitian topological phases are typically engineered through gain and loss, nonreciprocity, or interaction with an environment. Here we show that they can instead emerge purely by projecting a fully Hermitian, topologically trivial parent lattice onto an embedded subsystem. The mechanism is general: when a zero mode of the eliminated degrees of freedom couples to the retained subsystem, the embedding self-energy develops a pole, the zero-frequency description becomes singular, and topology is carried by the finite-frequency projected Green's function. We realize the mechanism exactly in a trivial nearest-neighbor square lattice with an embedded one-dimensional zig-zag brane. In the periodic transverse geometry, the parity of the eliminated complement selects the outcome: even sectors reduce to a regular Schur complement and yield conventional SSH-type descendants, whereas odd sectors host a sublattice-imbalance zero mode and follow the resonant route. There, the complex bands braid through isolated finite-frequency exceptional points (EPs), while a parity symmetry inherited from the embedding, together with TRS†, induces conjugated pseudo-Hermiticity and quantizes the complex Berry phase. The stable bulk invariant of the nondegenerate phases is this quantized complex Berry phase; adjacent sectors are separated by parity-paired exceptional points whose half-integer vorticities encode the local exchange of complex-energy strands.The absence of the non-Hermitian skin effect ensures that the invariant is defined directly on the ordinary Brillouin zone. A topolectrical implementation of the projected response predicts momentum-resolved transmission minima at the exceptional-point transition frequencies together with a characteristic low-frequency resonant admittance, providing an experimentally testable signature of the mechanism.
Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians with complex eigenenergies are useful tools for describing the dynamics of open quantum systems. In particular, parity and time (PT) symmetric Hamiltonians have generated interest due to the emergence of exceptional-point degeneracies, where both eigenenergies and eigenvectors coalesce as the energy spectrum transitions from real to complex valued. Because of the abrupt spectral response near exceptional points, such systems have been proposed as candidates for precision quantum sensing. In this Letter, we emulate a passive PT dimer using a two-mode, non-Hermitian system of superconducting qubits comprising one high-coherence qubit coupled to an intentionally lossy qubit via a tunable coupler. The loss is introduced by strongly coupling the qubit to a continuum of photonic modes in an open waveguide environment. Using both pulsed and continuous-wave measurements, we characterize the system dynamics near the exceptional point. We observe a behavior broadly consistent with an ideal passive PT dimer with some corrections due to the tunable coupler element. We extract the complex eigenenergies associated with the two modes and calculate the sensitivity as a function of the coupling strength. Confirming theoretical predictions, we observe no sensitivity enhancement near the quantum exceptional point. This Letter elucidates the limitations of exceptional-point systems as candidates for quantum-enhanced sensing. We establish waveguide quantum electrodynamics as a versatile platform for exploring non-Hermitian quantum dynamics in superconducting circuits.
For a one-dimensional (1D) waveguide coupled to two or three qubits, we show that the photon-photon correlations have a wide variety of behavior, with structure that depends sensitively on the frequency and on the qubit-qubit separation L. We study the correlations by calculating the second-order correlation function in which the interference among the photons multiply scattered from the qubits causes rich structure. In one case, for example, transmitted and reflected photons are both bunched initially, but then become strongly anti-bunched for a long time interval. We first calculate the correlation function including non-Markovian effects and then show that a much simpler Markovian treatment, which can be solved analytically, is accurate for small qubit separation. As a result, the non-classical properties of microwaves in a 1D waveguide coupled to many superconducting qubits with experimentally accessible separation L could be readily explored with our approach.