Non-Hermiticity can destroy Anderson localization and lead to delocalization even in one dimension. However, the unified understanding of the non-Hermitian delocalization has yet to be established. Here, we develop a scaling theory of localization in non-Hermitian systems. We reveal that non-Hermiticity introduces a new scale and breaks down the one-parameter scaling, which is the central assumption of the conventional scaling theory of localization. Instead, we identify the origin of the unconventional non-Hermitian delocalization as the two-parameter scaling. Furthermore, we establish the threefold universality of non-Hermitian localization based on reciprocity; reciprocity forbids the delocalization without internal degrees of freedom, whereas symplectic reciprocity results in a new type of symmetry-protected delocalization.
When one applies a type of non-Hermitian effect, constant imaginary vector potential, to disordered systems, delocalization is induced even in two or lower dimension. By using the non-Hermitian induced transition as a probe, We propose a new procedure of estimating localization in arbitrary-dimensional systems. By examining numerically the two-dimensional non-Hermitian tight-biding model with onsite disorder, it is shown that the failure of absorbing the non-Hermitian effect, namely the breakdown of the imaginary gauge transformation, characterize the inverse localization length near the band …
The cooperation between time-periodic driving fields and non-Hermitian effects could endow systems with distinctive spectral and transport properties. In this work, we uncover an intriguing class of non-Hermitian Floquet matter in one-dimensional quasicrystals, which is characterized by the emergence of multiple driving-induced ${\cal PT}$-symmetry breaking/restoration, mobility edges, and reentrant localization transitions. These findings are demonstrated by investigating the spectra, level statistics, inverse participation ratios and wavepacket dynamics of a periodically quenched nonreciproc…
Quantum Error Mitigation Simulates General Non-Hermitian Dynamics
Tokyo University of Science（东京科学大学）；Chuo University（中央大学）；University of Stuttgart（斯图加特大学）；NTT Inc.（日本电信电话株式会社）；RIKEN Pioneering Research Institute (PRI)（理化学研究所先驱研究本部）；RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS)（理化学研究所交叉理论数学科学中心）
Many-body localization is shown to suppress imaginary parts of complex eigenenergies for general non-Hermitian Hamiltonians having time-reversal symmetry. We demonstrate that a real-complex transition, which we conjecture occurs upon many-body localization, profoundly affects the dynamical stability of non-Hermitian interacting systems with asymmetric hopping that respect time-reversal symmetry. Moreover, the real-complex transition is shown to be absent in non-Hermitian many-body systems with gain and/or loss that breaks time-reversal symmetry, even though the many-body localization transitio…
Non-Hermitian effects could create rich dynamical and topological phase structures. In this work, we show that the collaboration between lattice dimerization and non-Hermiticity could generally bring about mobility edges and multiple localization transitions in one-dimensional quasicrystals. Non-Hermitian extensions of the Aubry-André-Harper (AAH) model with staggered onsite potential and dimerized hopping amplitudes are introduced to demonstrate our results. Reentrant localization transitions due to the interplay between quasiperiodic gain/loss and lattice dimerization are found. Quantized wi…
Topological metal-insulator transitions in one-dimensional non-Hermitian quasicrystals: beyond PT-symmetry
College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Ocean University of China（中国海洋大学物理与光电工程学院）；Qingdao Key Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronics（青岛先进光电子重点实验室）；Engineering Research Center of Advanced Marine Physical Instruments and Equipment of MOE（教育部海洋高端装备工程研究中心）；Department of Physics, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学物理系）；Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学量子技术中心）；MajuLab, CNRS-UCA-SU-NUS-NTU International Joint Research Unit（马久实验室，CNRS-南法大学-苏黎世联邦理工学院-新加坡国立大学-南洋理工大学国际联合研究单位）；Center for Phononics and Thermal Energy Science, China-EU Joint Lab on Nanophononics, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University（同济大学物理科学与技术学院，声子学与热能科学中心，中欧纳米声子学联合实验室，上海市特殊人工微结构材料与技术重点实验室）
We study numerically the localization properties of eigenstates in a one-dimensional random lattice described by a non-Hermitian disordered Hamiltonian, where both the disorder and the non-Hermiticity are inserted simultaneously in the on-site potential. We calculate the averaged participation number, the Shannon entropy and the structural entropy as a function of other parameters. We show that, in the presence of an imaginary random potential, all eigenstates are localized in the thermodynamic limit and strong anomalous Anderson localization occurs at the band center. In contrast to the usual…
Time-periodic driving fields could endow a system with peculiar topological and transport features. In this work, we find dynamically controlled localization transitions and mobility edges in non-Hermitian quasicrystals via shaking the lattice periodically. The driving force dresses the hopping amplitudes between lattice sites, yielding alternate transitions between localized, mobility edge and extended non-Hermitian quasicrystalline phases. We apply our Floquet engineering approach to five representative models of non-Hermitian quasicrystals, obtain the conditions of photon-assisted localizat…
We carry Chebyshev-polynomial expansion of the inverse localization length of Hermitian and non-Hermitian random chains as function of energy. For Hermitian models, the expansion produces numerically this energy-dependent function in one run of the algorithm. This is in strong contrast to the standard transfer-matrix method, which produces the inverse localization length for a fixed energy in each run. For non-Hermitian models, as in the transfer-matrix method, our algorithm computes the inverse localization length for a fixed (complex) energy. We also find a formula of the Chebyshev-polynomia…
We study a non-Hermitian Aubry-André-Harper model with both nonreciprocal hoppings and complex quasiperiodical potentials, which is a typical non-Hermitian quasicrystal. We introduce boundary-dependent self-dualities in this model and obtain analytical results to describe its Asymmetrical Anderson localization and topological phase transitions. We find that the Anderson localization is not necessarily in accordance with the topological phase transitions, which are characteristics of localization of states and topology of energy spectrum respectively. Furthermore, in the localized phase, single…
We investigate the topology and localization of one-dimensional Hermitian and non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains with quasiperiodic hopping modulations. In the Hermitian case, phase diagrams are obtained by numerically and analytically calculating various topological and localization characters. We show the presence of topological extended, intermediate, and localized phases due to the coexistence of independent topological and localization phase transitions driven by the quasiperiodic disorder. Unlike the gapless and localized TAI phase in one-dimensional random disordered systems, we …
Anomalous Localization and Mobility Edges in Non-Hermitian Quasicrystals with Disordered Imaginary Gauge Fields
Sanli Honors College, School of Physics and Electronics Engineering, Shanxi University（山西大学物理与电子工程学院三立荣誉学院）；Institute of Theoretical Physics and State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics Technologies and Devices, Shanxi University（山西大学理论物理研究所量子光学技术与器件国家重点实验室）；State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics Technologies and Devices, Institute of Laser Spectroscopy, Shanxi University（山西大学激光光谱研究所量子光学技术与器件国家重点实验室）
Disorder and non-Hermiticity dramatically impact the topological and localization properties of a quantum system, giving rise to intriguing quantum states of matter. The rich interplay of disorder, non-Hermiticity, and topology is epitomized by the recently proposed non-Hermitian topological Anderson insulator that hosts a plethora of exotic phenomena. Here we experimentally simulate the non-Hermitian topological Anderson insulator using disordered photonic quantum walks, and characterize its localization and topological properties. In particular, we focus on the competition between Anderson l…
We investigate the localization and topological transitions in a one-dimensional (interacting) non-Hermitian quasiperiodic lattice, which is described by a generalized Aubry-André-Harper model with irrational modulations in the off-diagonal hopping and on-site potential and with non-Hermiticities from the nonreciprocal hopping and complex potential phase. For noninteracting cases, we reveal that the nonreciprocal hopping (the complex potential phase) can enlarge the delocalization (localization) region in the phase diagrams spanned by two quasiperiodical modulation strengths. We show that the …
Non-Hermitian systems with aperiodic order display phase transitions that are beyond the paradigm of Hermitian physics. Unfortunately, owing to the incommensurability of the potential most of known non-Hermitian models are not integrable. This motivates the search for exactly solvable models, where localization/delocalization phase transitions, mobility edges in complex plane and their topological nature can be unraveled. Here we present an exactly solvable model of quasi crystal, which is a non-pertrurbative non-Hermitian extension of a famous integrable model of quantum chaos proposed by Gre…
We study non-Hermitian Aubry-André-Harper models with p-wave pairing, where the non-Hermiticity is introduced by on-site complex quasiperiodic potentials. By analysing the $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry breaking, winding numbers of energy spectra, localization and fractal dimensions of states, and fate of Majorana fermions, a complete phase diagram on Anderson localization and topological phase transitions is obtained. In particular, the non-Hermitian topological nature of Anderson localization phase transitions from extended to critical and then to localized phases is identified, using both analytic…
The critical exponents of continuous phase transitions of a Hermitian system depend on and only on its dimensionality and symmetries. This is the celebrated notion of the universality of continuous phase transitions. Here we report the superuniversality notion of Anderson localization transitions in non-Hermitian two-dimensional (2D) systems with exceptional points in which the critical exponents do not depend on the symmetries. The Anderson localization transitions are numerically studied by using the finite-size scaling analysis of the participation ratios. At the exceptional points of eithe…
The spectrum of exponents of the transfer matrix provides the localization lengths of Anderson's model for a particle in a lattice with disordered potential. I show that a duality identity for determinants and Jensen's identity for subharmonic functions, give a formula for the spectrum in terms of eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian with non-Hermitian boundary conditions. The formula is exact; it involves an average over a Bloch phase, rather than disorder. A preliminary investigation of non-Hermitian spectra of Anderson's model in D=1,2 and on the smallest exponent is presented.
A recent development in studies of random non-Hermitian quantum systems is reviewed. Delocalization was found to occur under a sufficiently large constant imaginary vector potential even in one and two dimensions. The phenomenon has a physical realization as flux-line depinning in type-II superconductors. Relations between the delocalization transition and the complex energy spectrum of the non-Hermitian systems are described. Analytical and numerical results obtained for a non-Hermitian Anderson model are shown.
In this paper, we investigate the driven dynamics of the localization transition in the non-Hermitian Aubry-André model with the periodic boundary condition. Depending on the strength of the quasi-periodic potential $λ$, this model undergoes a localization-delocalization phase transition. We find that the localization length $ξ$ satisfies $ξ\sim \varepsilon^{-ν}$ with $\varepsilon$ being the distance from the critical point and $ν=1$ being a universal critical exponent independent of the non-Hermitian parameter. In addition, from the finite-size scaling of the energy gap between the ground sta…
We calculate the Lyapunov exponent for the non-Hermitian Zakharov-Shabat eigenvalue problem corresponding to the attractive non-linear Schroedinger equation with a Gaussian random pulse as initial value function. Using an extension of the Thouless formula to non-Hermitian random operators, we calculate the corresponding average density of states. We analyze two cases, one with circularly symmetric complex Gaussian pulses and the other with real Gaussian pulses. We discuss the implications in the context of the information transmission through non-linear optical fibers.
A class of one-dimensional lattice models with incommensurate complex potential $V(θ)=2[λ_r cos(θ)+i λ_i sin(θ)]$ is found to exhibit localization transition at $|λ_r|+|λ_i|=1$. This transition from extended to localized states manifests in the behavior of the complex eigenspectum. In the extended phase, states with real eigenenergies have finite measure and this measure goes to zero in the localized phase. Furthermore, all extended states exhibit real spectrum provided $|λ_r| \ge |λ_i|$. Another novel feature of the system is the fact that the imaginary part of the spectrum is sensitive to th…
The correspondence between the real-complex transition in energy and delocalization-localization transition is well-established in a class of Aubry-Andr'e-Harper model with exponential non-Hermitian on-site potentials. In this paper, we study a generalized Aubry-Andr'e model with off-diagonal modulation and non-Hermitian on-site potential. We find that, when there exists an incommensurate off-diagonal modulation, the correspondence breaks down, although the extended phase is maintained in a wide parameter range of the strengths of the on-site potential and the off-diagonal hoppings. An additio…
According to the topological band theory of a Hermitian system, the different electronic phases are classified in terms of topological invariants, wherein the transition between the two phases characterized by a different topological invariant is the primary signature of a topological phase transition. Recently, it has been argued that the delocalization-localization transition in a quasicrystal, described by the non-Hermitian $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric extension of the Aubry-André-Harper (AAH) Hamiltonian can also be identified as a topological phase transition. Interestingly, the $\mathcal{PT}…
