Physical systems with loss or gain feature resonant modes that are decaying or growing exponentially with time. Whenever two such modes coalesce both in their resonant frequency and their rate of decay or growth, a so-called "exceptional point" occurs, around which many fascinating phenomena have recently been reported to arise [1][2][3][4][5][6] . Particularly intriguing behavior is predicted to appear when encircling an exceptional point sufficiently slowly 7,8 , like a state-flip or the accumulation of a geometric phase 9,10 . Experiments dedicated to this issue could already successfully explore the topological structure of exceptional points [11][12][13] , but a full dynamical encircling and the breakdown of adiabaticity inevitably associated with it 14-21 remained out of reach of any measurement so far. Here we

The recent realization of topological phases in insulators and superconductors has advanced the search for robust quantum technologies. The prospect to implement the underlying topological features controllably has given incentive to explore optical platforms for analogous realizations. Here we realize a topologically induced defect state in a chain of dielectric microwave resonators and show that the functionality of the system can be enhanced by supplementing topological protection with non-hermitian symmetries that do not have an electronic counterpart. We draw on a characteristic topological feature of the defect state, namely, that it breaks a sublattice symmetry. This isolates the state from losses that respect parity-time symmetry, which enhances its visibility relative to all other states both in the frequency and in the time domain. This mode selection mechanism naturally carries over to a wide range of topological and parity-time symmetric optical platforms, including couplers, rectifiers and lasers.

The tight-binding model with correlated disorder introduced by Izrailev and Krokhin [PRL 82, 4062 (1999)] has been extended to the Kronig-Penney model. The results of the calculations have been compared with microwave transmission spectra through a single-mode waveguide with inserted correlated scatterers. All predicted bands and mobility edges have been found in the experiment, thus demonstrating that any wanted combination of transparent and non-transparent frequency intervals can be realized experimentally by introducing appropriate correlations between scatterers.PACS numbers: 72.15. Rn, 72.20.Ee, 73.20.Jc Starting from the pioneering paper by Anderson [1], a lot of progress has been achieved in the theoretical study of 1D tight-binding models. This model includes a wide range of different physical situations lying in between two limit cases: ideal periodic lattices where all states are extended, and completely random lattices where any state is exponentially localized. Specific interest has been paid to the so-called pseudo-random (or deterministic aperiodic) potentials which demonstrate either localization or delocalization, depending on their parameters [2][3][4]. A widely used model is described by the Harper equation with the site potential V n = ǫ cos(2παn). For α irrational, the incommensurability of the potential gives rise to a localization-delocalization transition (for all states) when the amplitude ǫ passes through the critical value ǫ cr = 2, see e.g., Ref. [5]. For fixed ǫ the energy spectrum of the Harper equation exhibits the famous Hofstadter butterfly [6] when α scans the interval [0, 1]. This rather exotic spectrum was recently observed experimentally [7] by making use of the equivalence of the Harper equation and the wave equation in a single-mode electromagnetic waveguide with point-like scatterers.For a long time a coexistence of localized and extended states in the spectrum of eigenenergies of 1D random potentials was considered to be impossible. However, it was shown in Refs. [8,9] that a discrete set of delocalized states appears if short-range correlations are introduced in a random potential. This is done by repeating twice each value of site potential (dimer model). Recently discrete extended states have been observed in the experiment with GaAs-AlGaAs random superlattices [10].A general case of 1D potential in tight-binding approximation with arbitrary correlations was considered in Ref. [11]. A direct relation between the pair correlation function and the localization length has been derived. This relation shows that the mobility edge does exist in 1D geometry. A few examples of potentials with correlated disorder were given. All these potentials necessarily contain the long-range correlations which thus give rise to a continuum set of delocalized states and to mobility edge.

By means of a microwave tight-binding analogue experiment of a graphene-like lattice, we observe a topological transition between a phase with a point-like band gap characteristic of massless Dirac fermions and a gapped phase. By applying a controlled anisotropy on the structure, we investigate the transition directly via density of states measurements. The wave function associated with each eigenvalue is mapped and reveals new states at the Dirac point, localized on the armchair edges. We find that with increasing anisotropy, these new states are more and more localized at the edges.

We experimentally study the propagation of microwaves in an artificial honeycomb lattice made of dielectric resonators. This evanescent propagation is well described by a tight-binding model, very much like the propagation of electrons in graphene. We measure the density of states, as well as the wave function associated with each eigenfrequency. By changing the distance between the resonators, it is possible to modulate the amplitude of next-(next-)nearest-neighbor hopping parameters and to study their effect on the density of states. The main effect is the density of states becoming dissymmetric and a shift of the energy of the Dirac points. We study the basic elements: An isolated resonator, a two-level system, and a square lattice. Our observations are in good agreement with analytical solutions for corresponding infinite lattice.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

We present the first experimental microwave realization of the one-dimensional Dirac oscillator, a paradigm in exactly solvable relativistic systems. The experiment relies on a relation of the Dirac oscillator to a corresponding tight-binding system. This tight-binding system is implemented as a microwave system by a chain of coupled dielectric disks, where the coupling is evanescent and can be adjusted appropriately. The resonances of the finite microwave system yield the spectrum of the one-dimensional Dirac oscillator with and without a mass term. The flexibility of the experimental setup allows the implementation of other one-dimensional Dirac-type equations.

Microwave transport experiments have been performed in a quasi-two-dimensional resonator with randomly distributed conical scatterers. At high frequencies, the flow shows branching structures similar to those observed in stationary imaging of electron flow. Semiclassical simulations confirm that caustics in the ray dynamics are responsible for these structures. At lower frequencies, large deviations from Rayleigh's law for the wave height distribution are observed, which can only partially be described by existing multiple-scattering theories. In particular, there are "hot spots" with intensities far beyond those expected in a random wave field. The results are analogous to flow patterns observed in the ocean in the presence of spatially varying currents or depth variations in the sea floor, where branches and hot spots lead to an enhanced frequency of freak or rogue wave formation.

We study the fundamental question of dynamical tunneling in generic two-dimensional Hamiltonian systems by considering regular-to-chaotic tunneling rates. Experimentally, we use microwave spectra to investigate a mushroom billiard with adjustable foot height. Numerically, we obtain tunneling rates from high precision eigenvalues using the improved method of particular solutions. Analytically, a prediction is given by extending an approach using a fictitious integrable system to billiards. In contrast to previous approaches for billiards, we find agreement with experimental and numerical data without any free parameter. Typical Hamiltonian systems have a mixed phase space in which regular and chaotic motion coexist. While classically these regions are separated, quantum mechanically they are coupled by tunneling. This process has been called "dynamical tunneling" [1] as it occurs across a dynamically generated barrier in phase space. Tunneling has been studied between symmetry related regular regions (chaos-assisted tunneling) [2,3,4,5,6,7] and from a single regular region to the chaotic sea [8,9,10,11,12]. In contrast to the well understood 1D tunneling through a barrier, the quantitative prediction of dynamical tunneling is a major challenge. Results have been found for specific systems or system classes only, e.g. recently for 2D quantum maps with an approach using a fictitious integrable system [12]. However, a precise knowledge of tunneling rates is of great importance. Recent examples are spectral statistics in systems with a mixed phase space [13], eigenstates affected by flooding of regular islands [14], and emission properties of optical micro-cavities [15].Billiards are an important class of Hamiltonian systems. Classically, a point particle moves along straight lines inside a domain with elastic reflections at its boundary. Quantum-mechanical approaches for dynamical tunneling rates have so far escaped a full quantitative prediction as they required fitting by a factor of 6 for the annular billiard [3] and by a factor of 100 (see below) for the mushroom billiard [16].In this paper we present a combined experimental, theoretical, and numerical investigation of dynamical tunneling rates in mushroom billiards [17], which are of great current interest [13,16,18,19,20] due to their sharply divided phase space. Experiments are performed using a microwave cavity. Extending the approach using a fictitious integrable system [12] to billiards, we find quantitative agreement in the experimentally accessible regime, see Fig. 1, without a free parameter. In addition, numerical computations verify the predictions over 18 orders of magnitude with errors typically smaller than a factor of 2, see Fig. 4. The theoretical approach thus provides unprecedented agreement for tunneling rates in billiards.We consider the desymmetrized mushroom billiard, i.e. the 2D autonomous system H(p, q) = p 2 /2M + V (q) shown in Fig. 2b, characterized by the radius of the quarter circle R, the foot width a and the foot height l. The pote...