Emerging exceptional point with breakdown of skin effect in non-Hermitian systems

Abstract: We study the interplay of two distinct non-Hermitian parameters: directional coupling and onsite gain-loss, together with topology, in coupled one-dimensional (1D) non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chains. The SSH model represents one of the simplest two-band models that features boundary localized topological modes. Our study shows how the merging of two topological modes can lead to a striking spectral feature of non-Hermitian systems, namely exceptional point (EP). We reveal the existence EP as a singularity in the parameter space of non-Hermitian couplings carrying a half-integer topological charge. We also demonstrate two different localization behaviors observed in the bulk and hybridized topological modes. While the bulk states and individual topological modes remain localized at the boundaries due to skin effect, the competition between the constituent non-Hermitian parameters can overcome the strength of skin effect and lead to the complete \textit{delocalization} of these hybridized modes. We obtain explicit analytic solutions for the eigenfunction and the eigenenergy of the hybridized modes, which exactly match the numerical results and successfully reveal the underlying cause of delocalization and the emergence of EP.