Quasi-Parity-Time symmetric dynamics in a periodcially driven two-level non-Hermitian system

Abstract

In recent years, there have been intensive studies on non-Hermitian physics and parity-time (PT) symmetry, due to their fundamental importance in theory and outstanding applications. A distinctive character in PT-symmetric systems is phase transition (spontaneous PT-symmetry breaking), where the energy spectrum changes from all real to complex when the non-Hermitian parameter exceeds a certain threshold. However, the conditions for PT-symmetric system with real energy spectrum to occur are rather restrictive. Generalization of PT-symmetric potentials to wider classes of non-PT-symmetric complex potentials with all-real spectra is a currently important endeavor. The simple PT-symmetric two-level Floquet quantum system is now being actively explored, because it holds potential for realization of non-unitary single-qubit quantum gate. However, studies on the evolution dynamics of non-PT-symmetric two-level non-Hermitian Floquet quantum system still remain relatively rare.<br>In this paper, we investigate the non-Hermitian physics of a periodically driven non-PT-symmetric two-level quantum system. By phase-space analysis, we find that there exist so-called pseudo fixed points in phase space representing the Floquet solutions with fixed population difference and a time-dependent relative phase between the two levels. Based on these pseudo fixed points, we analytically construct the non-unitary evolution operator and then explore the dynamics of the non-PT-symmetric two-level quantum system in different parameter regions. We confirm both analytically and numerically that the two-level non-Hermitian Floquet quantum system, although being non-parity-time-symmetric, still features a phase transition with the quasienergy spectrum changing from all real to complex, just as for PT symmetric systems. Furthermore, we reveal that a novel phenomenon called quasi-PT symmetric dynamics occurs in the time evolution process. The quasi-PT symmetric dynamics is so named in our paper, in the sense that the time-evolution of population probabilities in the non-PT-symmetric two-level system respects fully the time-space symmetry (PT symmetry), while time-evolution of the quantum state (containing the phase) does not, due to the fact that time-evolution of the phases of the probability amplitudes on the two levels violates the PT symmetry requirement.