Effective non-Hermitian physics for degenerate ground states of a nonHermitian Ising model with $\mathcal{RT}$ symmetry

Abstract: In this paper, based on a one-dimensional non-Hermitian spin model with $\mathcal{RT}$-invariant term, we study the non-Hermitian physics for the two (nearly) degenerate ground states. By using the high-order perturbation method, an effective pseudo-spin model is obtained to describe non-Hermitian physics for the two (nearly) degenerate ground states, which are precisely consistent with the numerical calculations. We found that there may exist effective (anti) $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry for the effective pseudo-spin model of the two (nearly) degenerate ground states. In particular, there exists spontaneous (anti) $\mathcal{PT}$ -symmetry breaking for the topological degenerate ground states with tunable parameters in external fields. We also found that even a very tiny imaginary external field applied will drive $\mathcal{PT}$ phase transition.