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arxiv: 1801.01676 · v3 · pith:KHXA7ZLQnew · submitted 2018-01-05 · 🪐 quant-ph · math-ph· math.MP

What breaks parity-time-symmetry? -- pseudo-Hermiticity and resonance between positive- and negative-action modes

classification 🪐 quant-ph math-phmath.MP
keywords breakingpt-symmetryresonancewheneigenvaluesmechanismmodesnegative-action
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It is generally believed that Parity-Time (PT)-symmetry breaking occurs when eigenvalues or both eigenvalues and eigenvectors coincide. However, we show that this well-accepted picture of PT-symmetry breaking is incorrect. Instead, we demonstrate that the physical mechanism of PT-symmetry breaking is the resonance between positive- and negative-action modes. It is proved that PT-symmetry breaking occurs when and only when this resonance condition is satisfied, and this mechanism applies to all known PT-symmetry breakings observed in different branches of physics. The result is achieved by proving a remarkable fact that in finite dimensions, a PT-symmetric Hamiltonian is necessarily pseudo-Hermitian, regardless whether it is diagonalizable or not.

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