The quantum phase transitions of dimer chain driven by an imaginary alternating field

Abstract

A topologically equivalent tight binding model is proposed to study the quantum phase transitions of dimer chain driven by an imaginary alternating field. I demonstrate how the partner Hamiltonian is constructed by a similarity transformation to fulfil the PT symmetry. The PT symmetry of the partner model allows us to study the topological properties of the original non-Hermitian model as the Bloch bands of the Hermitian system. The quantum phase transitions are discussed in different frequency regime. The approach has the potential applications to investigate the topological states of matter driven by the complex external parameters.