Topological states of non-Hermitian systems

• Published in: The European physical journal. ST, Special topics Vol. 227; no. 12; pp. 1295 - 1308
• Main Authors: Martinez Alvarez, V. M., Barrios Vargas, J. E., Berdakin, M., Foa Torres, L. E. F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-12-2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Atomic; Classical and Continuum Physics; Condensed Matter Physics; Lattices; Materials Science; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Molecular; Optical and Plasma Physics; Photonics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Regular Article; Topological States of Matter: Theory and Applications
• ISSN: 1951-6355; 1951-6401
• DOI: 10.1140/epjst/e2018-800091-5

Recently, the search for topological states of matter has turned to non-Hermitian systems, which exhibit a rich variety of unique properties without Hermitian counterparts. Lattices modeled through non-Hermitian Hamiltonians appear in the context of photonic systems, where one needs to account for gain and loss, circuits of resonators, and also when modeling the lifetime due to interactions in condensed matter systems. Here we provide a brief overview of this rapidly growing subject, the search for topological states and a bulk-boundary correspondence in non-Hermitian systems.