Abstract
The unique time signature of the survival probability exactly at the exceptional point parameters is studied here for the hydrogen atom in strong static magnetic and electric fields. We show that indeed the survival probability decays exactly as , where is associated with the decay rate at the exceptional point and is a complex constant depending solely on the initial wave packet that populates exclusively the two almost degenerate states of the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. This may open the possibility for a first experimental detection of exceptional points in a quantum system.
- Received 24 April 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.84.013419
©2011 American Physical Society