Experimental demonstration of coherence flow in $\mathcal{PT}$- and anti-$\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric systems

Abstract

Non-Hermitian parity-time (PT ) and anti-parity-time (APT )-symmetric systems exhibit novel quantum properties and have attracted increasing interest. Although many counterintuitive phenomena in PT -and APT -symmetric systems were previously studied, coherence flow has been rarely investigated. Here, we experimentally demonstrate single-qubit coherence flow in PT -and APT -symmetric systems using an optical setup. In the symmetry unbroken regime, we observe different periodic oscillations of coherence. Particularly, we observe two complete coherence backflows in one period in the PT -symmetric system, while only one backflow in the APT -symmetric system. Moreover, in the symmetry broken regime, we observe the phenomenon of stable value of coherence flow. We derive the analytic proofs of these phenomena and show that most experimental data agree with theoretical results within one standard deviation. This work opens avenues for future study on the dynamics of coherence in PT -and APT -symmetric systems.