Non-Hermitian operators in many-body physicsConfirmed

by Jacob Barnett (Basque Center for Applied Mathematics)

Tuesday Sep 17, 2024, 3:30 p.m. → 5:00 p.m. America/Toronto

PI/4-400 - Space Room (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics)

Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians are a compulsory aspect of the linear dynamical systems that model many physical phenomena, such as those in electrical circuits, open quantum systems, and optics. Additionally, a representation of the quantum theory of closed systems with non-Hermitian observables possessing unbroken PT-symmetry is well-defined.

 

In this talk, I will second-quantize non-Hermitian quantum theories with paraFermionic statistics. To do this, I will introduce an efficient method to find conserved quantities when the Hamiltonian is free or translationally invariant. Using a specific non-Hermitian perturbation of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH ) model, a prototypical topological insulator, I examine how PT-symmetry breaking occurs at the topological phase transition. Finally, I show that although finite-dimensional PT-symmetric quantum theories generalize the tensor product model of locality, they never permit Bell inequality violations beyond what is possible in the Hermitian quantum tensor product model.