ABSTRACT Exceptional points (EPs), singularities in non‐Hermitian systems where eigenvalues and eigenstates coalesce, exhibit unique spectral responses and enhanced sensitivity. However, in quantum‐interference settings such as two‐photon measurements, the interference transition generally does not occur at the EPs, limiting their applications for quantum sensing. To address this issue, we develop an anti‐parity‐time‐symmetric model based on indirectly coupled waveguides and introduce a cascaded‐waveguide configuration that produces an effective rotation of the system's eigenbasis. This modification shifts the two‐photon bunching‐antibunching transition to coincide with the EP. Near the EP, a small refractive‐index perturbation leads to a sharp change in visibility, which becomes more pronounced by increasing waveguide length. This passive, gain‐free design may minimize noise and offer a feasible route toward EP‐enhanced quantum phase sensing on integrated platforms.
ABSTRACT Exceptional points (EPs), singularities in non‐Hermitian systems where eigenvalues and eigenstates coalesce, exhibit unique spectral responses and enhanced sensitivity. However, in quantum‐interference settings such as two‐photon measurements, the interference transition generally does not occur at the EPs, limiting their applications for quantum sensing. To address this issue, we develop an anti‐parity‐time‐symmetric model based on indirectly coupled waveguides and introduce a cascaded‐waveguide configuration that produces an effective rotation of the system's eigenbasis. This modification shifts the two‐photon bunching‐antibunching transition to coincide with the EP. Near the EP, a small refractive‐index perturbation leads to a sharp change in visibility, which becomes more pronounced by increasing waveguide length. This passive, gain‐free design may minimize noise and offer a feasible route toward EP‐enhanced quantum phase sensing on integrated platforms.
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.
Abstract Parity‐time (PT) symmetric systems with gain‐loss balanced structures can have entirely real eigenenergy spectra despite their non‐Hermitian nature, leading to peculiar discoveries such as single‐mode lasers, wireless power transfer, and non‐reciprocal light propagation. Recently, the study of PT‐symmetry has extended to the quantum realm, inspiring a search for PT‐symmetric quantum effects as well as their unique applications. Here, quantum entanglement and sensing with a PT‐symmetric system of two qubits are studied with Ising‐type interaction. It is shown that exceptional points (EPs) can induce exceptional entanglement phenomena such as collapse‐revival and steady‐state entanglement on the two sides of EPs. The entanglement in the PT‐symmetric system is also found to be generated more quickly than that in the Hermitian counterpart. In addition, a scheme for realizing EP‐enhanced quantum sensing is proposed by calculating the quantum Fisher information to estimate the parameters of the system. The work provides new insights into EP‐engineered quantum effects and can benefit a wide range of applications based on non‐Hermitian quantum devices.
Exceptional points (EPs) can induce strongly amplified responses to weak perturbations, but enhanced spectral sensitivity in conventional non-Hermitian systems does not necessarily translate into improved quantum-limited sensing because of the associated gain and loss noise. Here, we investigate a tunable EP sensing platform based on the intrinsic non-Hermitian Bogoliubov dynamics of a spin-orbit-angular-momentum-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate. Starting from a fully Hermitian microscopic Hamiltonian, we derive a Bogoliubov dynamical matrix that exhibits parity-time (PT) symmetry, with EPs tunable through the Raman coupling and interaction parameters. We identify multiple EPs and map their trajectories and associated stability landscapes, revealing strong quantum Fisher information enhancement when the EPs are approached from the PT-symmetric stable regime. We further find that the gap-opening rate around a second-order EP provides a useful relative indicator for comparing the sensing performance of EPs, while higher-order EPs are not necessarily accessible from the stable regime. Moreover, two second-order EPs can be tuned to overlap, allowing their sensing contributions to add and yielding a linear enhancement of the total quantum Fisher information. Finally, we show that a spin-density measurement can approach the quantum Fisher information limit, providing an experimentally accessible route to tunable EP-enhanced quantum sensing in Bose-Einstein condensates.
Quantum interference underpins many quantum information protocols but is typically studied in lossless Hermitian systems. Here, we reveal an exceptional point induced phase transition in two photon Hong Ou Mandel interference within a lossy coupled waveguide system. In the PT symmetric phase. interference is ultrasensitive to coupling strength, yielding sharp bunching antibunching switches. In the PT broken phase. it becomes robust oscillation free and propagation independent with coincidence probability stably tunable via coupling. These regimes enable enhanced quantum sensing and reliable two photon control for robust quantum information processing.
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.
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.