2022/01/26 by Nicola Maraviglia, Patrick Yard, Ross Wakefield +10 · 19 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Mathematics #Nonlinear Photonic Systems #Physics #Quantum Mechanics and Non-Hermitian Physics #Statistical physics #Topological Materials and Phenomena #physics.optics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevresearch.4.013051
published in Physical Review Research 4(1) (American Physical Society) · 15 pages, 7 figures
openalex publication_date 2022/01/26 · arxiv created 2022/02/01 · arxiv updated 2022/02/02 · openalex created_date 2022/02/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Parity-time-symmetric (PT-symmetric) Hamiltonians are generally non-Hermitian and give rise to exotic behavior in quantum systems at exceptional points, where eigenvectors coalesce. The recent realization of PT-symmetric Hamiltonians in quantum systems has ignited efforts to simulate and investigate many-particle quantum systems across exceptional points. Here, we use a programmable integrated photonic chip to simulate a model composed of twin pairs of PT-symmetric Hamiltonians, with each the time reverse of its twin. We simulate quantum dynamics across exceptional points including two- and three-particle interference, and a particle-trembling behavior that arises due to interference between subsystems undergoing time-reversed evolutions. These results show how programmable quantum simulators can be used to investigate foundational questions in quantum mechanics.