Exact mobility edges, $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry breaking and skin effect in one-dimensional non-Hermitian quasicrystals

TL;DR

This paper develops an exact analytical method to determine mobility edges in one-dimensional non-Hermitian quasicrystals with $ ext{PT}$ symmetry, linking localization transitions to symmetry breaking and skin effects.

Contribution

It introduces a general analytic approach using Avila's theory to find exact mobility edges and explores the relationship between $ ext{PT}$ symmetry breaking, localization, and skin effects in non-Hermitian quasicrystals.

Findings

Exact mobility edges coincide with $ ext{PT}$-symmetry breaking boundaries.

Localized states are insensitive to boundary conditions.

Extended states can become skin states under open boundary conditions.

Abstract

We propose a general analytic method to study the localization transition in one-dimensional quasicrystals with parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) symmetry, described by complex quasiperiodic mosaic lattice models. By applying Avila's global theory of quasiperiodic Schr\"odinger operators, we obtain exact mobility edges and prove that the mobility edge is identical to the boundary of $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry breaking, which also proves the existence of correspondence between extended (localized) states and $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry ($\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry-broken) states. Furthermore, we generalize the models to more general cases with non-reciprocal hopping, which breaks $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry and generally induces skin effect, and obtain a general and analytical expression of mobility edges. While the localized states are not sensitive to the boundary conditions, the extended states become skin states when the periodic boundary condition is changed to open boundary condition. This indicates that the skin states and localized states can coexist with their boundary determined by the mobility edges.