2018

Symmetry and Topology in Non-Hermitian Physics

Kawabata, Kohei, Shiozaki, Ken, Ueda, Masahito et al.

Understand

We develop a complete theory of symmetry and topology in non-Hermitian physics.

  • We demonstrate that non-Hermiticity ramifies the celebrated Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry classification for insulators and superconductors.
  • In particular, charge conjugation is defined in terms of transposition rather than complex conjugation due to the lack of Hermiticity, and hence chiral symmetry becomes distinct from sublattice symmetry.
  • It is also shown that non-Hermiticity enables a Hermitian-conjugate counterpart of the Altland-Zirnbauer symmetry.

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