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 (PT)-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.
@article{arxiv.2111.12036,
title = {Quantum simulation of parity-time symmetry breaking with a superconducting quantum processor},
author = {Shruti Dogra and Artem A. Melnikov and Gheorghe Sorin Paraoanu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2111.12036},
year = {2021}
}