Observation of parity-time symmetry breaking in a single spin system

Abstract

A fundamental axiom of quantum mechanics requires the Hamiltonians to be Hermitian which guarantees real eigen-energies and probability conservation. However, a class of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians with Parity-Time ($\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$) symmetry can still display entirely real spectra. The Hermiticity requirement may be replaced by $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetry to develop an alternative formulation of quantum mechanics. A series of experiments have been carried out with classical systems including optics, electronics, microwaves, mechanics and acoustics. However, there are few experiments to investigate $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetric physics in quantum systems.Here we report the first observation of the $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetry breaking in a single spin system. We have developed a novel method to dilate a general $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetric Hamiltonian into a Hermitian one, which can be realized in a practical quantum system.Then the state evolutions under $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetric Hamiltonians, which range from $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetric unbroken to broken regions, have been experimentally observed with a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond. Due to the universality of the dilation method, our result opens a door for further exploiting and understanding the physical properties of $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetric Hamiltonian in quantum systems.

References in corpus (6)

• Making Sense of Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians
• Dynamic polarization of single nuclear spins by optical pumping of NV color centers in diamond at room temperature
• Observation of the exceptional point in cavity magnon-polaritons
• New topological invariants in non-Hermitian systems
• The Naimark dilated PT-symmetric brachistochrone
• Jarzynski equality in $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric quantum mechanics

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