Topological states in non-Hermitian systems are known to exhibit some anomalous features. Here, we find two new anomalous features of non-Hermitian topological states. We consider a one dimensional nonreciprocal Hamiltonian and show that topological robustness can be practically lost for a linear combination of topological eigenstates in non-Hermitian systems due to the non-Hermitian skin effect. We consider a two dimensional non-Hermitian Chern insulator and show that chirality of topological states can be broken at some parameters of the Hamiltonan. This implies that the topological states are no longer immune to backscattering in 2D.
A non-Hermitian extension of a Chern insulator and its bulk-boundary correspondence are investigated. It is shown that in addition to the robust chiral edge states that reflect the nontrivial topology of the bulk (nonzero Chern number), anomalous helical edge states localized only at one edge can appear, which are unique to the non-Hermitian Chern insulator.
A non-Hermitian topological insulator is fundamentally different from conventional topological insulators. The non-Hermitian skin effect arises in a nonreciprocal tight binding lattice with open edges. In this case, not only topological states but also bulk states are localized around the edges of the nonreciprocal system. We discuss that controllable switching from topological edge states into topological extended states in a chiral symmetric non-Hermitian system is possible. We show that the skin depth decreases with non-reciprocity for bulk states but increases with it for topological zero …
The hallmark of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases is the existence of anomalous boundary states, which can only be realized with the corresponding bulk system. In this work, we show that for every Hermitian anomalous boundary mode of the ten Altland-Zirnbauer classes, a non-Hermitian counterpart can be constructed, whose long time dynamics provides a realization of the anomalous boundary state. We prove that the non-Hermitian counterpart is characterized by a point-gap topological invariant, and furthermore, that the invariant exactly matches that of the corresponding Hermitian anoma…
Berry phases strongly affect the properties of crystalline materials, giving rise to modifications of the semiclassical equations of motion that govern wave-packet dynamics. In non-Hermitian systems, generalizations of the Berry connection have been analyzed to characterize the topology of these systems. While the topological classification of non-Hermitian systems is being developed, little attention has been paid to the impact of the new geometric phases on dynamics and transport. In this work, we derive the full set of semiclassical equations of motion for wave-packet dynamics in a system g…
The Comment by Xiong et al. (arXiv:1610.06275) criticizing my Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 133903 (2016)] was rejected by Physical Review Letters. In this Reply, I show that all their claims are wrong.
A non-Hermitian topological insulator with real spectrum is interesting in the theory of non-Hermitian extension of topological systems. We find an experimentally realizable example of a two dimensional non-Hermitian topological insulator with real spectrum. We consider two-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model with gain and loss. We introduce non-Hermitian polarization vector to explore topological phase and show that topological edge states in the band gap exist in the system.
The discovery of topological phases in non-Hermitian open classical and quantum systems challenges our current understanding of topological order. Non-Hermitian systems exhibit unique features with no counterparts in topological Hermitian models, such as failure of the conventional bulk-boundary correspondence and non-Hermitian skin effect. Advances in the understanding of the topological properties of non-Hermitian lattices with translational invariance have been reported in several recent studies, however little is known about non-Hermitian quasicrystals. Here we disclose topological phases …
In this paper, with the help of Hermitian/non-Hermitian dynamic strings, the theory of non-Hermitian topological order is developed based on a non-Hermitian Wen-plaquette model. The effective models for bosonic topological excitations (e-particle and m-particle) are Hermitian tight-binding lattice model; the effective model for fermionic topological excitation (f-particle) becomes a non-Hermitian tight-binding lattice model. In addition, the effective pseudo-spin model for topologically degenerate ground states is derived by calculating the expectation values of Hermitian/non-Hermitian topolog…
Non-Hermitian materials can not only exhibit exotic energy band structures but also an anomalous velocity induced by non-Hermitian anomalous Berry connection as predicted by the semiclassical equations of motion for Bloch electrons. However, it is not clear how the modified semiclassical dynamics modifies transport phenomena. Here, we theoretically demonstrate the emergence of anomalous oscillations driven by either an external dc or ac electric field, which arise from non-Hermitian anomalous Berry connection. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that geometric structures of electric wave functio…
Classifications of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases provide a framework to systematically understand the physical properties and potential applications of topological systems. While such classifications have been widely explored in the context of Hermitian systems, a complete understanding of the roles of more general non-Hermitian symmetries and their associated classification is still lacking. Here, we derive a periodic table for non-interacting SPTs with general non-Hermitian symmetries. Our analysis reveals novel non-Hermitian topological classes, while also naturally incorporat…
In Hermitian topological systems, the bulk-boundary correspondence strictly constraints boundary transport to values determined by the topological properties of the bulk. We demonstrate that this constraint can be lifted in non-Hermitian Floquet insulators. Provided that the insulator supports an anomalous topological phase, non-Hermiticity allows us to modify the boundary states independently of the bulk, without sacrificing their topological nature. We explore the ensuing possibilities for a Floquet topological insulator with non-Hermitian time-reversal symmetry, where the helical transport …
Spectra of bulk or edges in topological insulators are often made complex by non-Hermiticity. Here, we show that symmetry protection enables entirely real spectra for both bulk and edges even in non-Hermitian topological insulators. In particular, we demonstrate entirely real spectra without non-Hermitian skin effects due to a combination of pseudo-Hermiticity and Kramers degeneracy. This protection relies on nonspatial fundamental symmetry and has stability against disorder. As an illustrative example, we investigate a non-Hermitian extension of the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model. The helical ed…
We introduce a one dimensional non-Hermitian four band tight binding lattice system. We find stable topological edge states protected by particle-hole and parity-time symmetries. We show that topological phase appears in the system. We discuss that the system can also be used as a topological laser if the gain and loss positions in a unit cell are judiciously arranged.
We show that the bulk-boundary correspondence for topological insulators can be modified in the presence of non-Hermiticity. We consider a one-dimensional tight-binding model with gain and loss as well as long-range hopping. The system is described by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian that encircles an exceptional point in momentum space. The winding number has a fractional value of 1/2. There is only one dynamically stable zero-energy edge state due to the defectiveness of the Hamiltonian. This edge state is robust to disorder due to protection by a chiral symmetry. We also discuss experimental rea…
We introduce modulational instability in non-Hermitian systems to study state conversion of topological edge states. We show that state conversion in non-Hermitian systems leads to topological pumping, which is a way of transferring topological edge state from one edge to the opposite edge. In contrast to Hermitian systems, topological pumping can occur spontaneously in non-Hermitian systems.
Both non-Hermitian systems and the behaviour of emitters coupled to structured baths have been studied intensely in recent years. Here we study the interplay of these paradigmatic settings. In a series of examples, we show that a single quantum emitter coupled to a non-Hermitian bath displays a number of unconventional behaviours, many without Hermitian counterpart. We first consider a unidirectional hopping lattice whose complex dispersion forms a loop. We identify peculiar bound states inside the loop as a manifestation of the non-Hermitian skin effect. In the same setting, emitted photons m…
So far, topological band theory is discussed mainly for systems described by eigenvalue problems. Here, we develop a topological band theory described by a generalized eigenvalue problem (GEVP). Our analysis elucidates that non-Hermitian topological band structures may emerge for systems described by a GEVP with Hermitian matrices. The above result is verified by analyzing a two-dimensional toy model where symmetry-protected exceptional rings (SPERs) emerge although the matrices involved are Hermitian. Remarkably, these SPERs are protected by emergent symmetry, which is unique to the systems d…
The non-trivial topological features in the energy band of non-Hermitian systems provide promising pathways to achieve robust physical behaviors in classical or quantum open systems. A key topological feature, unique to non-Hermitian systems, is the non-trivial winding of the energy band in the complex energy plane. Here we provide direct experimental demonstrations of such non-trivial winding, by implementing non-Hermitian lattice Hamiltonians along a frequency synthetic dimension formed in a ring resonator undergoing simultaneous phase and amplitude modulations, and by directly characterizin…
We relate topological properties of non-Hermitian systems and observables of quantum open systems by using the Keldysh path-integral method. We express Keldysh Green's functions in terms of effective non-Hermitian Hamiltonians that contain all the relevant topological information. We arrive at a frequency dependent topological index that is linked to the response of the system to perturbations at a given frequency. We show how to detect a transition between different topological phases by measuring the response to local perturbations. Our formalism is exemplified in a 1D Hatano-Nelson model, h…
We analyze chiral topological edge modes in a non-Hermitian variant of the 2D Dirac equation. Such modes appear at interfaces between media with different "masses" and/or signs of the "non-Hermitian charge". The existence of these edge modes is intimately related to exceptional points of the bulk Hamiltonians, i.e., degeneracies in the bulk spectra of the media. We find that the topological edge modes can be divided into three families ("Hermitian-like", "non-Hermitian", and "mixed"), these are characterized by two winding numbers, describing two distinct kinds of half-integer charges carried …
In two-dimensional anomalous Floquet insulators, non-Hermitian boundary state engineering can be used to completely separate chiral boundary states from bulk bands in the quasienergy spectrum. The topological properties of such spectrally separated boundary states are no longer restricted by the strict bulk-boundary correspondence of Hermitian systems. We show that this additional topological freedom enables one to faithfully transfer the topological properties of a boundary attached to a Floquet insulator to a non-Hermitian Floquet chain obtained by physically cutting off the boundary from th…
We present a one-dimensional coupled ring resonator lattice exhibiting a variant of the non- Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) that we call the anomalous Floquet NHSE. Unlike existing approaches to achieving the NHSE by engineering gain and loss on different ring segments, our design uses fixed on-site gain or loss in each ring. The anomalous Floquet NHSE is marked by the existence of skin modes at every value of the Floquet quasienergy, allowing for broadband asymmetric transmission. Varying the gain/loss induces a non-Hermitian topological phase transition, reversing the localization direction of…
Non-Hermitian skin effect and critical skin effect are unique features of non-Hermitian systems. In this Letter, we study an open system with its dynamics of single-particle correlation function effectively dominated by a non-Hermitian damping matrix, which exhibits $\mathbb{Z}_2$ skin effect, and uncover the existence of a novel phenomenon of helical damping. When adding perturbations that break anomalous time reversal symmetry to the system, the critical skin effect occurs, which causes the disappearance of the helical damping in the thermodynamic limit although it can exist in small size sy…
We introduce and study a novel class of sensors whose sensitivity grows exponentially with the size of the device. Remarkably, this drastic enhancement does not rely on any fine-tuning, but is found to be a stable phenomenon immune to local perturbations. Specifically, the physical mechanism behind this striking phenomenon is intimately connected to the anomalous sensitivity to boundary conditions observed in non-Hermitian topological systems. We outline concrete platforms for the practical implementation of these non-Hermitian topological sensors (NTOS) ranging from classical meta-materials t…
Topological edge states appear at the interface of topologically distinct two Hermitian insulators. We study the extension of this idea to non-Hermitian systems. We consider PT symmetric and topologically distinct non-Hermitian insulators with real spectra and study topological edge states at the interface of them. We show that PT symmetry is spontaneously broken at the interface during the topological phase transition. Therefore topological edge states with complex energy eigenvalues appear at the interface. We apply our idea to a complex extension of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model.
Recent studies of disorder or non-Hermiticity induced topological insulators inject new ingredients for engineering topological matter. Here we consider the effect of purely non-Hermitian disorders, a combination of these two ingredients, in a 1D coupled-cavity array with disordered gain and loss. Topological photonic states can be induced by increasing gain-loss disorder strength with topological invariants carried by localized states in the complex bulk spectra. The system showcases rich phase diagrams and distinct topological states from Hermitian disorders. The non-Hermitian critical behav…
We investigate topological lasers in combination of nonlinear, non-Hermitian and topological lattice systems based on a quench dynamics starting from one site. We consider explicitly the topological laser in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model with two topological edge states and the second-order topological laser in the breathing Kagome lattice with three topological corner states. Once we stimulate any one site, after a delay, all sites belonging to the topological edge or corner states begin to emit stable laser light depending on the density of states, although no wave propagation is obse…
Non-Hermitian topological systems show quite different properties as their Hermitian counterparts. An important, puzzled issue on non-Hermitian topological systems is the existence of defective edge states beyond usual bulk-boundary correspondence (BBC) that localize either on the left edge or the right edge of the one-dimensional system. In this paper, to understand the existence of the defective edge states, the theory of anomalous bulk-boundary correspondence (A-BBC) is developed that distinguishes the non-Bloch bulk-boundary correspondence (NB-BBC) from non-Hermitian skin effect. By using …
The breakdown of the bulk-boundary correspondence in non-Hermitian (NH) topological systems is an open, controversial issue. In this paper, to resolve this issue, we ask the following question: Can a (global) topological invariant completely describe the topological properties of a NH system as its Hermitian counterpart? Our answer is no. One cannot use a global topological invariant (including non-Bloch topological invariant) to accurately characterize the topological properties of the NH systems. Instead, there exist a new type of topological invariants that are absence in its Hermitian coun…
Non-Hermitian topological phases in static and periodically driven systems have attracted great attention in recent years. Finding dynamical probes for these exotic phases would be of great importance in the detection and application of their topological properties. In this work, we propose a systematic approach to dynamically characterize non-Hermitian Floquet topological phases in one-dimension with chiral symmetry. We show that the topological invariants of a chiral symmetric Floquet system can be fully determined by measuring the winding angles of its time-averaged spin textures. We furthe…
Ocean University of China（中国海洋大学）；Qingdao Key Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronics（青岛先进光电学重点实验室）；Engineering Research Center of Advanced Marine Physical Instruments and Equipment of MOE（教育部海洋高端物理仪器和设备工程研究中心）
Recently, the search for topological states of matter has turned to non-Hermitian systems, which exhibit a rich variety of unique properties without Hermitian counterparts. Lattices modeled through non-Hermitian Hamiltonians appear in the context of photonic systems, where one needs to account for gain and loss, circuits of resonators, and also when modeling the lifetime due to interactions in condensed matter systems. Here we provide a brief overview of this rapidly growing subject, the search for topological states and a bulk-boundary correspondence in non-Hermitian systems.
Majorana edge modes are candidate elements of topological quantum computing. In this work, we purpose a Floquet engineering approach to generate arbitrarily many non-Hermitian Majorana zero and $π$ modes at the edges of a one-dimensional topological superconductor. Focusing on a Kitaev chain with periodically kicked superconducting pairings and gain/losses in the chemical potential or nearest neighbor hopping terms, we found rich non-Hermitian Floquet topological superconducting phases, which are originated from the interplay between drivings and non-Hermitian effects. Each of the phases is ch…
Non-Hermitian systems can host topological states with novel topological invariants and bulk-edge correspondences that are distinct from conventional Hermitian systems. Here we show that two unique classes of non-Hermitian 2D topological phases, a 2$\mathbb{Z}$ non-Hermitian Chern insulator and a $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ topological semimetal, can be realized by tuning staggered asymmetric hopping strengths in a 1D superlattice. These non-Hermitian topological phases support real edge modes due to robust $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric-like spectra and can coexist in certain parameter regime. The proposed ph…
In this paper, we study the topological properties of the non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) lattice by periodically introducing onsite imaginary potentials in the manner of ($iγ_1$, $-iγ_2$, $-iγ_1$, $iγ_2$) where $γ_1$ and $γ_2$ are the imaginary potential strengths. Results show that by changing the lattice to a tetramerized non-Hermitian system, such imaginary potentials induce the nontrivial transition of the topological properties of the SSH system. First, the topologically-nontrivial region is extended, followed by the non-Hermitian spontaneous breaking of the anti-$\cal PT$ symme…
Non-Hermiticity alters topology with the presence of non-Hermitian factors in topological systems. Most existing non-Hermitian topological systems derive their topological phases from Hermitian components, that is, the gain and loss of the system are considered simultaneously. In this work, we reveal two-dimensional non-Hermitian high-order topological insulator based on one-dimensional SSH chain, the nontrivial topology of which induced by total-loss. By introducing the loss of a specific configuration, we get a band gap with corner and edge states whose topology is characterized by the gappe…
Capital to topological insulators, the bulk-boundary correspondence ties a topological invariant computed from the bulk (extended) states with those at the boundary, which are hence robust to disorder. Here we put forward an ordering unique to non-Hermitian lattices, whereby a pristine system becomes devoid of extended states, a property which turns out to be robust to disorder. This is enabled by a peculiar type of non-Hermitian degeneracy where a macroscopic fraction of the states coalesce at a single point with geometrical multiplicity of $1$, that we call a phenomenal point.
The breakdown of the conventional bulk-boundary correspondence due to non-Hermitian skin effect leads to the non-Bloch bulk-boundary correspondence in the generalized Brillouin zone. Inspired by the case of the equivalence between the non-reciprocal hopping and imaginary gauge field, we propose a method to construct the topological equivalent models of the non-Hermitian dimerized lattices with the similarity transformations. The idea of the constructions is from that the imaginary magnetic flux vanishes under the open boundary condition and the period boundary spectra can be well approximated …
Eigenenergies of a non-Hermitian system without parity-time symmetry are complex in general. Here, we show that the chiral boundary states of higher-dimensional (two-dimensional and three-dimensional) non-Hermitian topological insulators without parity-time symmetry can be Hermitian with real eigenenergies under certain conditions. Our approach allows one to construct Hermitian chiral edge and hinge states from non-Hermitian two-dimensional Chern insulators and three-dimensional second-order topological insulators, respectively. Such Hermitian chiral boundary channels have perfect transmission…
Exceptional points are universal level degeneracies induced by non-Hermiticity. Whereas past decades witnessed their new physics, the unified understanding has yet to be obtained. Here we present the complete classification of generic topologically stable exceptional points according to two types of complex-energy gaps and fundamental symmetries of charge conjugation, parity, and time reversal. This classification reveals unique non-Hermitian gapless structures with no Hermitian analogs and systematically predicts unknown non-Hermitian semimetals and nodal superconductors; a topological dumbbe…
We provide a systematic study of non-Hermitian topologically charged systems. Starting from a Hermitian Hamiltonian supporting Weyl points with arbitrary topological charge, adding a non-Hermitian perturbation transforms the Weyl points to one-dimensional exceptional contours. We analytical prove that the topological charge is preserved on the exceptional contours. In contrast to Hermitian systems, the addition of gain and loss allows for a new class of topological phase transition: when two oppositely charged exceptional contours touch, the topological charge can dissipate without opening a g…
We show that non-Hermiticity enables topological phases with unidirectional transport in one-dimensional Floquet chains. The topological signatures of these phases are non-contractible loops in the spectrum of the Floquet propagator that are separated by an imaginary gap. Such loops occur exclusively in non-Hermitian Floquet systems. We define the corresponding topological invariant as the winding number of the Floquet propagator relative to the imaginary gap. To relate topology to transport, we introduce the concept of regularized dynamics of non-Hermitian chains. We establish that, under the…
