Simulating non-Hermitian quasicrystals with single-photon quantum walks

Abstract

Non-Hermiticity significantly enriches the properties of topological models, leading to exotic features such as the non-Hermitian skin effects and non-Bloch bulk-boundary correspondence that have no counterparts in Hermitian settings. Its impact is particularly illustrating in non-Hermitian quasicrystals where the interplay between non-Hermiticity and quasiperiodicity results in the concurrence of the delocalization-localization transition, the parity-time (PT)-symmetry breaking, and the onset of the non-Hermitian skin effects. Here we experimentally simulate non-Hermitian quasicrystals using photonic quantum walks. Using dynamic observables, we demonstrate that the system can transit from a delocalized, PT-symmetry broken phase that features non-Hermitian skin effects, to a localized, PT-symmetry unbroken phase with no non-Hermitian skin effects. The measured critical point is consistent with the theoretical prediction through a spectral winding number, confirming the topological origin of the phase transition. Our work opens the avenue of investigating the interplay of non-Hermiticity, quasiperiodicity, and spectral topology in open quantum systems.

10 pages, 7 figures. In the updated version, we add new experimental evidence for the presence of a mobility edge in quantum-walk dynamics

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Cited by in corpus (63)

• Topological Non-Hermitian skin effect
• Anomalous Skin Effects in Disordered Systems with a Single non-Hermitian Impurity
• Critical phase dualities in 1D exactly-solvable quasiperiodic models
• Non-Hermitian Floquet Topological Matter -- A Review
• Review on Quantum Walk Computing: Theory, Implementation, and Application
• A comprehensive review on developments of synthetic dimensions
• Proposal for Observing Yang-Lee Criticality in Rydberg Atomic Arrays
• Non-Hermitian skin effects on many-body localized and thermal phases
• Manipulating non-reciprocity in a two-dimensional magnetic quantum walk
• Entanglement phase transitions in non-Hermitian quasicrystals
• Non-Abelian generalization of non-Hermitian quasicrystal: PT-symmetry breaking, localization, entanglement and topological transitions
• Erratic non-Hermitian skin localization
• Non-Hermitian butterfly spectra in a family of quasiperiodic lattices
• Phase transitions and bunching of correlated particles in a non-Hermitian quasicrystal
• Hybrid scale-free skin effect in non-Hermitian systems: A transfer matrix approach
• Self acceleration from spectral geometry in dissipative quantum-walk dynamics
• Asymmetric transfer matrix analysis of Lyapunov exponents in one-dimensional non-reciprocal quasicrystals
• Emergent strength-dependent scale-free mobility edge in a non-reciprocal long-range Aubry-André-Harper model
• Critical non-Hermitian topology induced quantum sensing
• Two dimensional vertex-decorated Lieb lattice with exact mobility edges and robust flat bands
• Engineering non-Hermitian Second Order Topological Insulator in Quasicrystals
• Scaling laws for non-Hermitian skin effect with long-range couplings
• From Ergodicity to Many-Body Localization in a One-Dimensional Interacting Non-Hermitian Stark System
• Floquet band engineering with Bloch oscillations
• Exact complex mobility edges and flagellate spectra for non-Hermitian quasicrystals with exponential hoppings
• Universal scaling of Green's functions in disordered non-Hermitian systems
• Electrical analogue of one-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional Aubry-André-Harper lattices
• Entanglement phase transitions in non-Hermitian Floquet systems
• Quantum-Classical Correspondence of Non-Hermitian Symmetry Breaking
• Correlation-induced phase transitions and mobility edges in an interacting non-Hermitian quasicrystal
• Coexistence of ergodic and weakly ergodic states in finite-height Wannier-Stark ladders
• Exact non-Hermitian mobility edges and robust flat bands in two-dimensional Lieb lattices with imaginary quasiperiodic potentials
• Investigation of a non-Hermitian edge burst with time-dependent perturbation theory
• Robust Anderson transition in non-Hermitian photonic quasicrystals
• Non-Hermitian control of localization in mosaic photonic lattices
• Scale-free localization versus Anderson localization in unidirectional quasiperiodic lattices
• General mapping of one-dimensional non-Hermitian mosaic models to non-mosaic counterparts: Mobility edges and Lyapunov exponents
• Emergent multi-loop nested point gap in a non-Hermitian quasiperiodic lattice
• Fate of pseudo mobility-edge and multiple states in non-Hermitian Wannier-Stark lattice
• Adiabatic-impulse approximation in non-Hermitian Landau-Zener Model
• Dissipative two-dimensional Raman lattice
• Anomalous spectrum in a non-Hermitian quasiperiodic chain
• Topologically compatible non-Hermitian skin effect
• Non-equilibrium dynamics of localization phase transition in the non-Hermitian Disorder-Aubry-André model
• One-dimensional L{é}vy Quasicrystal
• Extended-localized transition in diffusive quasicrystals
• Exact mobility line and mobility ring in the complex energy plane of a flat band lattice with a non-Hermitian quasiperiodic potential
• Non-Hermitian ultra-strong bosonic clustering through interaction-induced caging
• Fate of localization features in a one-dimensional non-Hermitian flat-band lattice with quasiperiodic modulations
• Bulk-boundary correspondence in topological systems with the momentum dependent energy shift
• Non-Hermitian dynamical topological winding in photonic mesh lattices
• Phase transitions in non-Hermitian superlattices
• Exact multiple complex mobility edges and quantum state engineering in coupled 1D quasicystals
• Two-body interaction induced phase transitions and intermediate phases in nonreciprocal non-Hermitian quasicrystals
• Local Non-Hermitian Hamiltonian Formalism for Dissipative Fermionic Systems and Loss-Induced Population Increase in Fermi Superfluids
• Quantum-to-semiclassical Husimi dynamics of non-Hermitian localization transitions
• Magnetic Control of the Non-Hermitian Skin Effect in Two-Dimensional Lattices
• Family of self-dual quasicrystals with critical Phases
• Quantum walk with coherent multiple translations induces fast quantum gate operations
• Generic non-Hermitian mobility edges in a class of duality-breaking quasicrystals
• Superconducting order parameter in aperiodic binary systems
• Quasiperiodic Skin Criticality in an Exactly Solvable Non-Hermitian Quasicrystal
• Coexistence of topological Anderson insulator and multifractal critical phase in a non-Hermitian quasicrystal