Real Spectra in Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians Having PT Symmetry

Journal Article · Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1998 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.5243· OSTI ID:636188

Bender, C M ^[1]; Boettcher, S ^[2]; Boettcher, S ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130 (United States)
2. Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
3. CTSPS, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia 30314 (United States)

The condition of self-adjointness ensures that the eigenvalues of a Hamiltonian are real and bounded below. Replacing this condition by the weaker condition of PT symmetry, one obtains new infinite classes of complex Hamiltonians whose spectra are also real and positive. These PT symmetric theories may be viewed as analytic continuations of conventional theories from real to complex phase space. This paper describes the unusual classical and quantum properties of these theories. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}

• OSTI ID: 636188
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 80, Issue 24; Other Information: PBD: Jun 1998
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
HAMILTONIANS
C INVARIANCE
P INVARIANCE
T INVARIANCE
HARMONIC OSCILLATORS
QUANTUM MECHANICS
PHI4-FIELD THEORY
SUPERSYMMETRY
ELECTRODYNAMICS
STRONG-COUPLING MODEL
SYMMETRY BREAKING
FINE STRUCTURE
INSTANTONS