Realization of $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric and $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetry broken states in static optical lattice potentials

Abstract

R. Labouvie et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 235302 (2016)] have described an experiment with a weakly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a one-dimensional optical lattice with localized loss created by a focused electron beam. We show that by setting suitable initial currents between neighboring sites it is possible to create $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric quasi-stationary and $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetry broken decaying states in an embedded two-mode subsystem. This subsystem exhibits gain provided by the coupling to the reservoir sites and localized loss due to the electron beam, and shows the same dynamics as a non-Hermitian two-mode system with symmetric real and antisymmetric imaginary time-independent potentials, except for a proportionality factor in the chemical potential. We also show that there are three other equivalent scenarios, and that the presence of a localized loss term significantly reduces the size of the condensate required for the realization.

8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Stability and collisions of quantum droplets in PT -symmetric dual-core couplers
• Balanced gain and loss in spatially extended non-$\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric multi-well potentials