Exceptional points (EPs) are non-Hermitian degeneracies at which two eigenvalues and their eigenvectors coalesce, producing a defective Hamiltonian and a double pole of the $S$-matrix. Using the coupled-channel Gamow Shell Model with the $\ell=1$ spin-orbit strengths as control parameters, we locate and characterize EPs in $^6\text{Li}$, $^7\text{Li}$, $^7\text{Be}$, and $^8\text{Be}$, and analyze their imprint on energies, widths, phase rigidity, spectroscopic factors, elastic cross sections, survival probabilities, and spectral functions. The signatures of the EP in scattering and time-domain observables are found to be strongly channel-dependent, and threshold effects play a decisive role in determining the accessibility of the EP in parameter space.
Exceptional points (EPs) are non-Hermitian degeneracies at which two eigenvalues and their eigenvectors coalesce, producing a defective Hamiltonian and a double pole of the S-matrix. Using the coupled-channel Gamow Shell Model with the ℓ=1 spin-orbit strengths as control parameters, we locate and characterize EPs in 6Li, 7Li, 7Be, and 8Be, and analyze their imprint on energies, widths, phase rigidity, spectroscopic factors, elastic cross sections, survival probabilities, and spectral functions. The signatures of the EP in scattering and time-domain observables are found to be strongly channel-dependent, and threshold effects play a decisive role in determining the accessibility of the EP in parameter space.
Open photonic systems provide a versatile platform for non-Hermitian physics, enabling control over complex spectra, transport, and light-matter interactions. Exceptional points (EPs), at which eigenvalues and eigenvectors coalesce and the governing operator becomes defective, play a central role because they combine branch-point spectral topology, nonanalytic perturbative response, and controllable eigenstate conversion. This Review provides a unified framework for EP photonics by systematically distinguishing exceptional degeneracies according to the underlying operator, spectral variable, boundary conditions, and experimentally accessible observables. We discuss Hamiltonian EPs, absorbing EPs associated with scattering zeros, real-frequency scattering-matrix and Jones-matrix EPs, Bloch and Floquet EPs, and Liouvillian EPs in open quantum systems. We review their spectral topology, static and dynamical encircling, higher-order exceptional structures, and coexistence with bound states in the continuum, together with applications in sensing, lasing, coherent absorption, directional scattering, polarization and wavefront control, nonlinear optics, optical storage, nonreciprocal photonics, and quantum photonics. We also critically assess the current limitations, practical challenges, and future perspectives of EP-based photonic technologies, with particular attention to robustness, noise, scalability, and experimentally measurable performance.
The appearance of topological singularities, namely exceptional points (EPs) is an intriguing feature of parameter-dependent open quantum or wave systems. EPs are the special type of nonHermitian degeneracies where two (or more) eigenstates of the underlying system coalesce. In this paper, we present a three level non-Hermitian Hamiltonian which hosts three interacting eigenstates. The matrix elements are optimized in such a way that the intermediate eigenstate interacts with both the other states and the underlying system hosts at least two different second order EPs. The impact of quasi-static parameter variation along a cyclic contour around the embedded EPs on the dynamics of interacting eigenvalues is well investigated in the context of cascaded state conversion. Such dynamics of the eigenvalues shows a clear signature of the third order EP with a combined effect of both the second order EPs. Moreover, we examine the accumulation of phases around the identified EPs and study the hallmark of phase exchange during cascaded state conversions accompanied by the parametric encirclement of the third order EP.
A main distinguishing feature of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics is the presence of exceptional points (EPs). They correspond to the coalescence of two energy levels and their respective eigenvectors. Here, we use the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick (LMG) model as a test bed to explore the strong connection between EPs and the onset of excited state quantum phase transitions (ESQPTs). We show that for finite systems, the exact degeneracies (EPs) obtained with the non-Hermitian LMG Hamiltonian continued into the complex plane are directly linked with the avoided crossings that characterize the ESQPTs for the real (physical) LMG Hamiltonian. The values of the complex control parameter $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ that lead to the EPs approach the real axis as the system size $N\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$. This happens for both the EPs that are close to the separatrix that marks the ESQPT and also for those that are far away, although in the latter case, the convergence rate is smaller. With the method of Pad\'e approximants, we can extract the critical value of $\ensuremath{\alpha}$.
Exceptional points (EPs) occur in non-Hermitian systems where eigenvalues and eigenvectors coalesce. In open quantum systems, EPs are typically studied via non-Hermitian effective Hamiltonians or Liouvillians, but these omit the full generality of quantum dynamics, which requires description using quantum channels. Here, we introduce a general strategy for generating quantum-channel EPs in the single-qubit setting. We show that quantum channels naturally fall into two distinct phases, purely real or complex-conjugate eigenvalues, without the need of enforcing additional symmetries, and interpolating between different phases induces a phase transition where EPs can emerge. We experimentally simulate such channels on a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum computer, observing second-order quantum-channel EPs with 93% fidelity, and extend the approach to three channels to uncover exceptional lines and a third-order quantum-channel EP. Our results promise potential applications from enhanced quantum sensing to quantum control, such as Jordan-chain mediated asymmetric conversion.
Exceptional points (EPs) are non-Hermitian spectral singularities where eigenvalues and eigenvectors coalesce. We propose a geometry-controlled route to EPs in orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) photonics. In an effective torsion-free helicoidal background, the twist supplies a signed, real chiral splitting between opposite-OAM modes, while openness, gain, loss, leakage, or channel coupling, supplies the non-Hermiticity. The EP is reached when the geometric detuning compensates for a residual mode splitting and the linewidth contrast meets the non-Hermitian balance condition; the twist rate is thus the control parameter, not the source of non-Hermiticity. We obtain the OAM slope both for a confined quantum problem and, in the paraxial regime, for a helically twisted guide, and embed the OAM doublet in a multimode mode-space model to show that the EP survives spectator modes. Eigenvalue coalescence, phase-rigidity collapse, linear EP tracking with residual detuning, and branch exchange under geometric encircling provide falsifiable signatures. An OAM-resolved input-output response maps these onto spectroscopy-level observables, including spectral maps and three-dimensional Riemann-surface visualizations. A device-level paraxial simulation of two distinct photonic platforms, one reciprocal and one asymmetric-coupling Wiersig-type platform, reproduces the predicted exceptional point and its linear geometric tracking.
Abstract Exceptional points (EPs) occur in non-Hermitian systems where eigenvalues and eigenvectors coalesce. In open quantum systems, EPs are typically studied via non-Hermitian effective Hamiltonians or Liouvillians, but these omit the full generality of quantum dynamics, which requires description using quantum channels. Here, we introduce a general strategy for generating quantum-channel EPs in the single-qubit setting. We show that quantum channels naturally fall into two distinct phases, purely real or complex-conjugate eigenvalues, without the need of enforcing additional symmetries, and interpolating between different phases induces a phase transition where EPs can emerge. We experimentally simulate such channels on a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum computer, observing second-order quantum-channel EPs with 93% fidelity, and extend the approach to three channels to uncover exceptional lines and a third-order quantum-channel EP. Our results promise potential applications from enhanced quantum sensing to quantum control, such as Jordan-chain mediated asymmetric conversion.