Entanglement and spin squeezing in non-Hermitian phase transitions

Abstract: We show that non-Hermitian dynamics generate substantial entanglement in many-body systems. We consider the non-Hermitian Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model and show that its phase transition occurs with maximum multiparticle entanglement: there is full N-particle entanglement at the transition, in contrast to the Hermitian case. The non-Hermitian model also exhibits more spin squeezing than the Hermitian model, showing that non-Hermitian dynamics are useful for quantum metrology. Experimental implementations with trapped ions and cavity QED are discussed.