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Metric-induced nonhermitian physics

by Pasquale Marra

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Pasquale Marra

Abstract

I consider the long-standing issue of the hermicity of the Dirac equation in curved spacetime metrics. Instead of imposing hermiticity by adding ad hoc terms, I renormalize the field by a scaling function, which is related to the determinant of the metric, and then regularize the renormalized field on a discrete lattice. I found that, for time-independent and diagonal metrics such as the Rindler, de~Sitter, and anti-de~Sitter metrics, the Dirac equation returns a hermitian or pseudohermitian ($\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric) Hamiltonian when properly regularized on the lattice. Notably, the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry is unbroken in the pseudohermitian cases, assuring a real energy spectrum with unitary time evolution. Conversely, considering a more general class of time-dependent metrics, which includes the Weyl metric, the Dirac equation returns a nonhermitian Hamiltonian with nonunitary time evolution. Arguably, this nonhermicity is physical, with the time dependence of the metric corresponding to local nonhermitian processes on the lattice and nonunitary growth or decay of the time evolution of the field. This suggests a duality between nonhermitian gain and loss phenomena and spacetime contractions and expansions. This metric-induced nonhermiticity unveils an unexpected connection between spacetime metric and nonhermitian phases of matter.

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