Optical Realization of Relativistic Non-Hermitian Quantum Mechanics

2010/06/30 by Stefano Longhi · 1 voice · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Nonlinear Photonic Systems #Quantum Mechanics and Non-Hermitian Physics #Quantum chaos and dynamical systems #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.105.013903

openalex publication_date 2010/06/30 · arxiv published 2010/08/31 · arxiv updated 2010/08/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Light propagation in distributed-feedback optical structures with gain or loss regions is shown to provide an accessible laboratory tool to visualize in optics the spectral properties of the one-dimensional Dirac equation with non-Hermitian interactions. Spectral singularities and PT symmetry breaking of the Dirac Hamiltonian are shown to correspond to simple observable physical quantities and are related to well-known physical phenomena such as resonance narrowing and laser oscillation.

Citations

• Making Sense of Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians
• Physics of Nonhermitian Degeneracies

Cited by

• Reconfigurable Defect States in Non-Hermitian Topolectrical Chains with Gain and Loss

Discussions

• Exceptional points do not strictly speaking require PT-symmetric Hamiltonians. From a mathematical point of view they are branch point singularities of a matrix or operator when the parameter which de [stackexchange, 3 points]