Entanglement Phase Transition Induced by the Non-Hermitian Skin Effect

Recent years have seen remarkable development in open quantum systems effectively described by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. A unique feature of non-Hermitian topological systems is the skin effect, anomalous localization of an extensive number of eigenstates driven by nonreciprocal dissipation. Despite its significance for non-Hermitian topological phases, the relevance of the skin effect to quantum entanglement and critical phenomena has remained unclear. Here, we find that the skin effect induces a nonequilibrium quantum phase transition in the entanglement dynamics. We show that the skin effect gives rise to a macroscopic flow of particles and suppresses the entanglement propagation and thermalization,…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: DMR-2001181
• SF
  Simons Foundation

  Award: 566116
• GA
  Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

  Award: GBMF8685