Non-Hermitian description of the dynamics of inter-chain pair tunnelling

Abstract: We study inter-chain pair tunnelling dynamics based on an exact two-particle solution for a two-leg ladder. We show that the Hermitian Hamiltonian shares a common two-particle eigenstate with a corresponding non-Hermitian Hubbard Hamiltonian in which the non-Hermiticity arises from an on-site interaction of imaginary strength. Our results provides that the dynamic processes of two-particle collision and across-legs tunnelling are well described by the effective non-Hermitian Hubbard Hamiltonian based on the eigenstate equivalence. We also find that any common eigenstate is always associated with the emergence of spectral singularity in the non-Hermitian Hubbard model. This result is valid for both Bose and Fermi systems and provides a clear physical implication of the non-Hermitian Hubbard model.