Non‐Hermitian potentials and real eigenvalues

Ni Liu, Luo, Meng, J. -Q. Liang

We in this paper study the hermiticity of Hamiltonian and energy spectrum for the SU(1; 1) systems. The Hermitian Hamiltonian can possess imaginary eigenvalues in contrast with the common belief that hermiticity is a suffcient condition for real spectrum. The imaginary eigenvalues are derived in algebraic method with imaginary-frequency boson operators for the Hamiltonian of inverted potential well. Dual sets of mutually orthogonal eigenstates are required corresponding respectively to the complex conjugate eigenvalues. Arbitrary order eigenfunctions seen to be the polynomials of imaginary frequency are generated from the normalized ground-state wave functions, which are spatially non localized. The Hamiltonian including a non-Hermitian interaction term can be converted by similarity transformation to the Hermitian one with an effective potential of reduced slope, which is turnable by the interaction constant. The transformation operator should not be unitary but Hermitian different from the unitary transformation in ordinary quantum mechanics. The effective potential vanishes at a critical value of coupling strength called the exceptional point, where all eigenstates are degenerate with zero eigenvalue and transition from imaginary to real spectra appears. The SU(1; 1) generator $\widehat{S}_{z}$ with real eigenvalues determined by the commutation relation of operators, however, is non-Hermitian in the realization of imaginay-frequency boson operators. The classical counterpart of the quantum Hamiltonian with non-Hermitian interaction is a complex function of the canonical variables. It becomes by the canonical transformation of variables a real function indicating exactly the one to one quantum-classical correspondence of Hamiltonians.

Ali Mostafazadeh

Ram Mehar Singh

With a view to getting further insight into the solutions of one-dimensional analogous Schr?dinger equation for a non-hermitian (complex) Hamiltonian system, we investigate the quasi-exact PT- symmetric solutions for an octic potential and its variant using extended complex phase space approach characterized by x=x1+ip2, p=p1+ix2, where (x1, p1) and (x2, p2) are real and considered as canonical pairs. Besides the complexity of the phase space, complexity of potential parameters is also considered. The analyticity property of the eigenfunction alone is found sufficient to throw light on the nature of eigenvalue and eigenfunction of a system. The imaginary part of energy eigenvalue of a non-hermitian Hamiltonian exist for complex potential parameters and reduces to zero for real parameters. However, in the present work, it is found that imaginary component of the energy eigenvalue vanishes even when potential parameters are complex, provided that PT-symmetric condition is satisfied. Thus PT- symmetric version of a non-hermitian Hamiltonian possesses the real eigenvalue.

F. Cannata, Georg Junker, Johannes Trost

Ni Liu, Zuohong Wang, Meng Luo +1 more

Abstract We in this paper study the hermiticity of Hamiltonian and energy spectrum for the SU (1, 1) systems. The Hermitian Hamiltonian can possess imaginary eigenvalues if the potential is unbounded below like the Gamow state in nuclear physics. We provide a rigorous quantization for the Hermitian Hamiltonian of inverted harmonic oscillator with the imaginary eigenvalues, which are derived in algebraic method with imaginary frequency boson operators. Dual sets of mutually orthogonal eigenstates are required corresponding respectively to the complex conjugate eigenvalues. Arbitrary order eigenfunctions are generated from the normalized ground state wave functions, which are spatially non-localized. The Hamiltonian including a non-Hermitian interaction term can be converted by similarity transformation to the Hermitian one with an effective potential of reduced slope, which can be manipulated by the interaction constant. The transformation operator is Hermitian different from the unitary transformation in ordinary quantum mechanics. The effective potential vanishes at a critical value of coupling strength called the exceptional point (EP), where all eigenstates are degenerate with zero eigenvalue. The spectrum becomes real beyond the EP just opposite to the usual transition direction. The classical counterpart of the quantum Hamiltonian with non-Hermitian interaction is a complex function of canonical variables. It becomes by the canonical transformation of variables a real function. The quantum–classical correspondence exists precisely for the system with imaginary eigenvalues.

Carl M. Bender