General description of quasiadiabatic dynamical phenomena near exceptional points

Thomas J. Milburn, Jörg Doppler, Catherine A. Holmes, Stefano Portolan, Stefan Rotter, and Peter Rabl
Phys. Rev. A 92, 052124 – Published 30 November 2015

Abstract

The appearance of so-called exceptional points in the complex spectra of non-Hermitian systems is often associated with phenomena that contradict our physical intuition. One example of particular interest is the state-exchange process predicted for an adiabatic encircling of an exceptional point. In this work we analyze this and related processes for the generic system of two coupled oscillator modes with loss or gain. We identify a characteristic system evolution consisting of periods of quasistationarity interrupted by abrupt nonadiabatic transitions and we present a qualitative and quantitative description of this switching behavior by connecting the problem to the phenomenon of stability loss delay. This approach makes accurate predictions for the breakdown of the adiabatic theorem as well as the occurrence of chiral behavior observed previously in this context and provides a general framework to model and understand quasiadiabatic dynamical effects in non-Hermitian systems.

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  • Received 8 June 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.92.052124

©2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Thomas J. Milburn1,*, Jörg Doppler2, Catherine A. Holmes3, Stefano Portolan4, Stefan Rotter2, and Peter Rabl1

  • 1Institute of Atomic and Subatomic Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Stadionallee 2, 1020 Vienna, Austria
  • 2Institute for Theoretical Physics, Vienna University of Technology, 1040 Vienna, Austria
  • 3School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia
  • 4Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom

  • *thomas.milburn@ati.ac.at

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Vol. 92, Iss. 5 — November 2015

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