Quantum simulation of parity–time symmetry breaking with a superconducting quantum processor
Shruti Dogra, Artem A. Melnikov, G. S. Paraoanu
Abstract
Abstract The observation of genuine quantum effects in systems governed by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians has been an outstanding challenge in the field. Here we simulate the evolution under such Hamiltonians in the quantum regime on a superconducting quantum processor by using a dilation procedure involving an ancillary qubit. We observe the parity–time ( $${\mathcal{PT}}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>PT</mml:mi> </mml:math> )-symmetry breaking phase transition at the exceptional points, obtain the critical exponent, and show that this transition is associated with a loss of state distinguishability. In a two-qubit setting, we show that the entanglement can be modified by local operations.