Browsing by Author "Yi, Wei"

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    Conserved quantities in parity-time symmetric systems
    (APS, 2020) Bian, Zhihao; Xiao, Lei; Wang, Kunkun; Zhan, Xiang; Assogba Onanga, Franck; Ruzicka, Frantisek; Yi, Wei; Joglekar, Yogesh N.; Xue, Peng; Physics, School of Science
    Conserved quantities such as energy or the electric charge of a closed system, or the Runge-Lenz vector in Kepler dynamics, are determined by its global, local, or accidental symmetries. They were instrumental in advances such as the prediction of neutrinos in the (inverse) beta decay process and the development of self-consistent approximate methods for isolated or thermal many-body systems. In contrast, little is known about conservation laws and their consequences in open systems. Recently, a special class of these systems, called parity-time (PT) symmetric systems, has been intensely explored for their remarkable properties that are absent in their closed counterparts. A complete characterization and observation of conserved quantities in these systems and their consequences is still lacking. Here, we present a complete set of conserved observables for a broad class of PT-symmetric Hamiltonians and experimentally demonstrate their properties using a single-photon linear optical circuit. By simulating the dynamics of a four-site system across a fourth-order exceptional point, we measure its four conserved quantities and demonstrate their consequences. Our results spell out nonlocal conservation laws in nonunitary dynamics and provide key elements that will underpin the self-consistent analyses of non-Hermitian quantum many-body systems that are forthcoming.
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    Quantum information dynamics in a high-dimensional parity-time-symmetric system
    (APS, 2020-09) Bian, Zhihao; Xiao, Lei; Wang, Kunkun; Assogba Onanga, Franck; Ruzicka, Frantisek; Yi, Wei; Joglekar, Yogesh N.; Xue, Peng; Physics, School of Science
    Non-Hermitian systems with parity-time (PT) symmetry give rise to exceptional points (EPs) with exceptional properties that arise due to the coalescence of eigenvectors. Such systems have been extensively explored in the classical domain, where second- or higher-order EPs have been proposed or realized. In contrast, quantum information studies of PT-symmetric systems have been confined to systems with a two-dimensional Hilbert space. Here, by using a single-photon interferometry setup, we simulate the quantum dynamics of a four-dimensional PT-symmetric system across a fourth-order exceptional point. By tracking the coherent, nonunitary evolution of the density matrix of the system in PT-symmetry unbroken and broken regions, we observe the entropy dynamics for both the entire system, and the gain and loss subsystems. Our setup is scalable to the higher-dimensional PT-symmetric systems, and our results point towards the rich dynamics and critical properties.