Exceptional Points as Drivers of Dynamical Phase Transitions: High-Order Singularities in Topological Quantum Systems

Dr. Chuan-Zhe Yao - Dept. of Engineering Science, NCKU

Exceptional Points as Drivers of Dynamical Phase Transitions: High-Order Singularities in Topological Quantum Systems

Dr. Chuan-Zhe Yao - Dept. of Engineering Science, NCKU

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DATE

2026-04-27

TIME

12:10-13:10

PLACE

R36173, 1F, Dept. of Physics, Building of Science College, NCKU

FIELD

Quantum Information Science

SPEAKER

Dr. Chuan-Zhe Yao - Dept. of Engineering Science, NCKU

TITLE

Exceptional Points as Drivers of Dynamical Phase Transitions: High-Order Singularities in Topological Quantum Systems

ABSTRACT

Despite extensive studies on exceptional points (EPs), their microscopic role in driving nonequilibrium dynamical phase transitions remains elusive. We demonstrate that EPs serve as fundamental drivers of these transitions in structured open quantum systems. By establishing a general framework that unifies the description of EPs arising from the coalescence of resonances in gapless media and antibound states in gapped systems, we reveal that EPs strictly govern the critical transition between non-Markovian localization and delocalization phases. This mechanism imprints a characteristic algebraic signature on the dynamics, which smooths the critical crossover into the universal band-edge decay. Our approach remains robust in complex systems exhibiting multiple energy gaps, revealing a fourth-order EP in a topological Ising chain and demonstrating how high-order non-Hermitian degeneracies emerge naturally from the unitary dynamics of structured many-body systems.