Experimental simulation of the parity-time symmetric dynamics using photonic qubits
Wei‐Chao Gao, Chao Zheng, Lu Liu, Tie-Jun Wang, Chuan Wang
Abstract
The concept of parity-time (PT) symmetry originates from the framework of quantum mechanics, where if the Hamiltonian operator satisfies the commutation relation with the parity and time operators, it shows real energy spectrum. Recently, PT symmetry was introduced into various systems, such as optics, electronic circuits, acoustics, and other classical fields to further study the dynamical behaviors of the Hamiltonian and the energies. To focus on the dynamical evolution of the quantum state, here we experimentally studied the dynamical evolution of a two-level quantum system under the PT symmetric Hamiltonian using single-photon system. By enlarging the system using ancillary qubit and encoding the subsystem under the non-Hermitian Hamiltonian with post-selection, the evolution of the state can be characterized with a high fidelity. Owing to the effectively operation of the dilation method, our work provides a route for further exploiting the exotic properties of PT symmetric Hamiltonian for quantum simulation and quantum information processing.