Exceptional points (EP's) are a hallmark of non-Hermitian quantum systems. We show that momentum-space deformation provides a general design principle for creating and controlling EP's in quadratic many-body Hamiltonians. We identify universal criteria for the momentum sectors to host EP's and the corresponding critical deformation strengths, while revealing that a single momentum-sector EP induces quite remarkably an exponential proliferation of many-body eigenvector coalescences. We further establish EP's as a universal mechanism for purifying arbitrary mixed quantum states, uncovering distinct purification regimes and a fundamental odd-even system-size dichotomy in the thermodynamic limit. Our framework also provides a systematic reverse-engineering protocol for generating short- and long-range, reciprocal and nonreciprocal non-Hermitian quantum matter, together with an explicit Lindblad embedding. These results thus establish momentum-space deformation as a unified route to exceptional-point engineering and controlled design of many-body non-Hermitian quantum systems.
Exceptional points (EP's) are a hallmark of non-Hermitian quantum systems. We show that momentum-space deformation provides a general design principle for creating and controlling EP's in quadratic many-body Hamiltonians. We identify universal criteria for the momentum sectors to host EP's and the corresponding critical deformation strengths, while revealing that a single momentum-sector EP induces quite remarkably an exponential proliferation of many-body eigenvector coalescences. We further establish EP's as a universal mechanism for purifying arbitrary mixed quantum states, uncovering distinct purification regimes and a fundamental odd-even system-size dichotomy in the thermodynamic limit. Our framework also provides a systematic reverse-engineering protocol for generating short- and long-range, reciprocal and nonreciprocal non-Hermitian quantum matter, together with an explicit Lindblad embedding. These results thus establish momentum-space deformation as a unified route to exceptional-point engineering and controlled design of many-body non-Hermitian quantum systems.
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 exceptional points (EPs) of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians (NHHs) are spectral degeneracies associated with coalescing eigenvalues and eigenvectors, which are associated with remarkable dynamical properties. These EPs can be generated experimentally in open quantum systems, evolving under a Lindblad equation, by postselecting on trajectories that present no quantum jumps, such that the dynamics is ruled by a NHH. Interestingly, changing the way the information used for postselection is collected leads to different unravelings, i.e., different set of trajectories, which average to the same Lindblad equation, but are associated with a different NHH. Here, we exploit this mechanism to create and control EPs solely by changing the measurement we postselect on. Our scheme is based on a realistic homodyne reading of the emitted leaking photons with a weak-intensity laser (a process that we call $\ensuremath{\beta}$-dyne), which we show generates a tunable NHH, that can exhibit EPs even though the system does have any in the absence of the laser. We consider a few illustrative examples pointing out the dramatic effects that different postselections can have on the spectral features of the NHH, paving the road towards engineering of EPs in simple quantum systems.
Exceptional points (EPs), indicative of parity-time (PT) symmetry breaking, play a central role in non-Hermitian physics, yet most studies begin from deliberately engineered effective Hamiltonians whose parameters are tuned to exhibit exceptional behavior. In realistic open quantum systems, however, dynamics are governed by Lindblad superoperators whose spectral structure is high-dimensional, symmetry-constrained, and not obviously reducible to minimal non-Hermitian models. A general framework for discovering exceptional dynamics directly from microscopic dissipative models has been lacking. Here we introduce a symmetry-resolved approach for identifying and characterizing exceptional points directly from the full Liouvillian generator. Correlated dissipation induces graph symmetries that decompose Liouville space into low-dimensional invariant sectors, within which minimal non-Hermitian blocks govern the onset of EPs and PT-breaking behavior. We further introduce a numerical diagnostic - the exceptional-point strength E - based on eigenvector conditioning, which quantifies proximity to defective dynamics without requiring analytic reduction. Applied to tight-binding models with correlated dephasing and relaxation, the method reproduces analytically predicted exceptional seams and reveals universal scaling of E near EP manifolds. More broadly, the framework enables systematic discovery of hidden exceptional structure in complex or high-dimensional open systems and is naturally compatible with matrix-free and tensor-network implementations for scalable many-body applications.
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.
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.
Exceptional points (EPs) are non-Hermitian spectral singularities exhibiting fractional-power responses, yet their implications for multipartite entanglement of interacting quantum many-body systems remain largely unexplored. Here we develop a general framework that links higher-order non-Hermitian degeneracies to the scaling behavior of genuine multipartite entanglement in interacting identical-qubit systems. Permutation symmetry of the identical qubits decomposes the exponentially large Hilbert space into independent irreducible-representation sectors, thereby constraining the maximal EP order of N qubits to N+1 rather than 2N. Near an nth-order EP, genuine multipartite entanglement inherits the spectral response and generically exhibits a fractional-power scaling under weak perturbations. Explicit examples show that conventional two-body interactions support third- and fourth-order EPs with the corresponding entanglement responses, whereas higher-order EPs with genuine multipartite-entangled coalesced states require additional independent interaction channels, such as three-body interactions. Our results establish a fundamental connection among non-Hermitian degeneracies, multipartite entanglement, and symmetry, extending higher-order EP physics from spectral singularities to genuine many-body quantum correlations.