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arXiv:2608.20847

Non-Hermitian sensing via end-to-end Green's functions

Hui-Qiang Liang, Yu-Shi Cheng, Guo-Fu Xu

quant-phSubmitted Aug 21, 2026• Announced Aug 24, 2026
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Sensing hinges on two key attributes: high sensitivity and resilience to noise. Here, we present a scheme that unites these features within a single framework. By harnessing the exponential amplification of end-to-end Green's functions-a direct signature of the non-Hermitian skin effect-our scheme achieves an exponential sensitivity scaling of exp(αL) with α a model-specific constant and L the system size. Notably, this enhanced sensitivity is protected by spectral winding numbers and endures under disorder when the non-Hermitian topological phase remains intact. We also explore its feasibility in synthetic non-Hermitian platforms, providing a pathway toward highly sensitive and noise-tolerant sensing.

Comments
7 pages, 6 figures

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Sensing hinges on two key attributes: high sensitivity and resilience to noise. Here, we present a scheme that unites these features within a single framework. By harnessing the exponential amplification of end-to-end Green's functions-a direct signature of the non-Hermitian skin effect-our scheme achieves an exponential sensitivity scaling of exp(αL) with α a model-specific constant and L the system size. Notably, this enhanced sensitivity is protected by spectral winding numbers and endures under disorder when the non-Hermitian topological phase remains intact. We also explore its feasibility in synthetic non-Hermitian platforms, providing a pathway toward highly sensitive and noise-tolerant sensing.
A central challenge in non-Hermitian sensing is that spectral singularities simultaneously amplify both the signal and environmental noise. We address this predicament in a double-chain Hatano-Nelson model featuring unidirectional interlayer coupling. At the exceptional deficiency (ED) limit, the system exhibits a macroscopically degenerate complex spectrum and a pronounced non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE), yielding a sensitivity that scales exponentially with lattice size NNN while remaining robust across a six-order-of-magnitude detuning range. By introducing diagonal spatial disorder, we demonstrate that the NHSE is progressively suppressed, whith eigenspace cosine similarity analysis quantifying a well-defined fault-tolerance threshold. To reconcile the sensitivity-noise trade-off, we delineate "At-ED" and "Off-ED" operating regimes. While the At-ED configuration imposes fractional-order noise amplification (SNR ∝δ−1/2\propto δ^{-1/2}∝δ−1/2) that saturates at a suboptimal plateau, migrating to the Off-ED regime eliminates this geometric singularity and restores a linear scaling law (SNR ∝δ−1\propto δ^{-1}∝δ−1), achieving an SNR enhancement of several orders of magnitude. Crucially, this improvement is achieved while fully preserving the exponential sensitivity scaling, albeit at a slightly reduced absolute sensitivity compared to the strict At-ED limit. Our findings establish the Off-ED framework as a concrete paradigm for next-generation topological sensors that reconcile extreme sensitivity with robust noise immunity.
Non-Hermitian systems have been employed to construct a high-sensitivity sensor. To evaluate the performance of the sensors, the quantum Fisher information per photon, or equivalently signal-to-noise ratio per photon, is provided as a “true” sensing criterion, which avoids the trivial contribution from the photon numbers. The specific properties of non-Hermitian systems, e.g., exceptional points and skin effect, have been connected to the true exponentially enhanced sensing performance. To date, the relation between the non-Hermitian topological phase and the true sensing performance has not been reported clearly. Here, we construct the high-sensitivity sensor based on the non-Hermitian Su–Schrieffer–Heeger lattice and establish the relationship between the exponentially enhanced sensing and the non-Hermitian topologically nontrivial phase. The saturation of sensing with the size emerges in the sense of one perturbation. Such a limitation can be surpassed through the change of incident positions of driving fields, and the exponentially enhanced sensing reappears.
The non-Hermitian skin effect can lead to directional amplification of response, with the associated end-to-end Green's function generally exhibiting size dependence. Any deviation in length or local disorder can drastically alter the amplification factor, rendering the response fragile in practical implementations. In this work, we identify a new type of scale-free, topological, and directionally amplified response in a Hatano-Nelson model under perturbed open boundary conditions. The scale-free response can be attributed to the first order boundary effect and characterized by a winding number defined on a continuous generalization of the finite-size Brillouin zone-a concept introduced in this work. Such scale-free behavior endows the end-to-end Green's function with significant robustness and making it promising for practical applications.
In non-Hermitian systems, it is a counterintuitive feature of the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) that the energy spectrum and eigenstates can be totally different under open or periodic boundary conditions, suggesting that non-Hermitian spectra can be extremely sensitive to non-local perturbations. Here, we show that a wide range of non-Hermitian models with NHSE can even be highly sensitive to local perturbation under open boundary conditions. The spectrum of these models is so fragile that it can be significantly modified by adding only exponentially small perturbations on boundaries. Intriguingly, we show that such fragile spectra are quantified by the Green's function exhibiting unconventional V-shape asymptotic behaviors. Accordingly, bi-directional exponential amplification can be observed. As an interesting consequence, we find a real-to-complex transition of the bulk spectrum induced by exponentially small boundary perturbations. Finally, we reveal a hierarchy of the asymptotic behaviors of non-Hermitian Green's functions, which restricts the frequency range for the presence of unconventional Green's functions.
Non-Hermitian systems exhibit markedly different phenomena than their conventional Hermitian counterparts. Several such features, such as the non-Hermitian skin effect, are only present in spatially extended systems. Potential applications of these effects in many-mode systems however remains largely unexplored. Here, we study how unique features of non-Hermitian lattice systems can be harnessed to improve Hamiltonian parameter estimation in a fully quantum setting. While the quintessential non-Hermitian skin effect does not provide any distinct advantage, alternate effects yield dramatic enhancements. We show that certain asymmetric non-Hermitian tight-binding models with a [Formula: see text] symmetry yield a pronounced sensing advantage: the quantum Fisher information per photon increases exponentially with system size. We find that these advantages persist in regimes where non-Markovian and non-perturbative effects become important. Our setup is directly compatible with a variety of quantum optical and superconducting circuit platforms, and already yields strong enhancements with as few as three lattice sites.
Non-Hermitian topological systems have attracted a lot of research activities in recent times, both theoretically and experimentally, due to their unique physical properties and association with open quantum systems. We show that modular structures, where specific couplings at regular intervals take distinct values, enrich the unique topological attributes of these systems such as the non-Hermitian skin effect and the breakdown of conventional bulk-boundary correspondence. These systems also possess the capability of displaying criticality-enhanced sensitivity for precision metrology. We establish how the modular structure enhances their sensing performance near spectral topological phase transitions and show that the enhancement can be achieved in multi-parameter estimation scenarios as well.