Emergent entanglement phase transitions in non-Hermitian Aubry-Andr\'e-Harper chains

Author:

Shan-Zhong Li, Xue-Jia Yu, Zhi Li

Keyword:

Condensed Matter, Disordered Systems and Neural Networks, Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn)

journal:

date:

2023-09-06 16:00:00

Abstract

Non-Hermitian systems exhibit many novel dynamical behaviors, such as entanglement phase transitions due to non-Hermitian skin effects. In this work, we delve into the entanglement dynamics of the non-Hermitian Aubry-Andr\'e-Harper (AAH) chain. With the quasiperiodic strength increases, a transition occurs from area laws induced by the skin effect to area laws arising from Anderson localization. Two different mechanisms for generating the area law are revealed through early stage entanglement dynamics. Under the skin effect, the entanglement entropy exhibits a non-monotonic process, characterized by initial growth, subsequent oscillations, and eventual convergence to a stable value. In contrast, within the Anderson localization regime, where particle diffusion is absent, the entanglement entropy remains consistently low. The sharp contrast in the early stage behavior highlights these two area law regions as distinct phases. Interestingly, at the critical line between these two regimes of area laws, a volume law emerges. Our study reveals that the area law induced by the skin effect and the Anderson localization is two different phases, and that a volume law can emerge at the phase transition point. The understanding of the entanglement phase transition induced by disorder and skin effect is thus deepened.

PDF: Emergent entanglement phase transitions in non-Hermitian Aubry-Andr\'e-Harper chains.pdf