In the present work, we explore the case of a general PT-symmetric dimer in the context of two both linearly and nonlinearly coupled cubic oscillators. To obtain an analytical handle on the system, we first explore the rotating wave approximation converting it into a discrete nonlinear Schrodinger type dimer. In the latter context, the stationary solutions and their stability are identified numerically but also wherever possible analytically. Solutions stemming from both symmetric and anti-symmetric special limits are identified. A number of special cases are explored regarding the ratio of coefficients of nonlinearity between oscillators over the intrinsic one of each oscillator. Finally, the considerations are extended to the original oscillator model, where periodic orbits and their stability are obtained. When the solutions are found to be unstable their dynamics is monitored by means of direct numerical simulations.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1409.7218
Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS); Chaotic Dynamics (nlin.CD); Exactly Solvable and Integrable Systems (nlin.SI)

In this work, we explore a prototypical example of a genuine continuum breather (i.e., not a standing wave) and the conditions under which it can persist in a \(\mathcal{P T}\)-symmetric medium. As our model of interest, we will explore the sine-Gordon equation in the presence of a \(\mathcal{P T}\)- symmetric perturbation. Our main finding is that the breather of the sine-Gordon model will only persist at the interface between gain and loss that \(\mathcal{P T}\)-symmetry imposes but will not be preserved if centered at the lossy or at the gain side. The latter dynamics is found to be interesting in its own right giving rise to kink-antikink pairs on the gain side and complete decay of the breather on the lossy side. Lastly, the stability of the breathers centered at the interface is studied. As may be anticipated on the basis of their “delicate” existence properties such breathers are found to be destabilized through a Hopf bifurcation in the corresponding Floquet analysis.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.3082
Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS)

In the present work we consider the introduction of PT-symmetric terms in the context of classical Klein-Gordon field theories. We explore the implication of such terms on the spectral stability of coherent structures, namely kinks. We find that the conclusion critically depends on the location of the kink center relative to the center of the PT-symmetric term. The main result is that if these two points coincide, the kink’s spectrum remains on the imaginary axis and the wave is spectrally stable. If the kink is centered on the “lossy side” of the medium, then it becomes stabilized. On the other hand, if it becomes centered on the “gain side” of the medium, then it is destabilized. The consequences of these two possibilities on the linearization (point and essential) spectrum are discussed in some detail.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.2942
Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS); Mathematical Physics (math-ph)

The subject of the work are pairs of linearly coupled PT-symmetric dimers. Two different settings are introduced, namely, straight-coupled dimers, where each gain site is linearly coupled to one gain and one loss site, and cross-coupled dimers, with each gain site coupled to two lossy ones. The latter pair with equal coupling coefficients represents a “PT-hypersymmetric” quadrimer. We find symmetric and antisymmetric solutions in these systems, chiefly in an analytical form, and explore the existence, stability and dynamical behavior of such solutions by means of numerical methods. We thus identify bifurcations occurring in the systems, including spontaneous symmetry breaking and saddle-center bifurcations. Simulations demonstrate that evolution of unstable branches typically leads to blowup. However, in some cases unstable modes rearrange into stable ones.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.3376
Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS); Optics (physics.optics)

We study the nonlinear Schro¨dinger equation with a PT-symmetric potential. Using a hydrodynamic formulation and connecting the phase gradient to the field amplitude, allows for a reduction of the model to a Duffing or a generalized Duffing equation. This way, we can obtain exact soliton solutions existing in the presence of suitable PT-symmetric potentials, and study their stability and dynamics. We report interesting new features, including oscillatory instabilities of solitons and (nonlinear) PT-symmetry breaking transitions, for focusing and defocusing nonlinearities.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.7635
Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS)

We study the nonlinear Schrodinger equation with a PT-symmetric potential. Using a hydrodynamic formulation and connecting the phase gradient to the field amplitude, allows for a reduction of the model to a Duffing or a generalized Duffing equation. This way, we can obtain exact soliton solutions existing in the presence of suitable PT-symmetric potentials, and study their stability and dynamics. We report interesting new features, including oscillatory instabilities of solitons and (nonlinear) PT-symmetry breaking transitions, for focusing and defocusing nonlinearities.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.7635
Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS)

We study the effects of management of the PT-symmetric part of the potential within the setting of Schrodinger dimer and trimer oligomer systems. This is done by rapidly modulating in time the gain/loss profile. This gives rise to a number of interesting properties of the system, which are explored at the level of an averaged equation approach. Remarkably, this rapid modulation provides for a controllable expansion of the region of exact PT-symmetry, depending on the strength and frequency of the imposed modulation. The resulting averaged models are analyzed theoretically and their exact stationary solutions are translated into time-periodic solutions through the averaging reduction. These are, in turn, compared with the exact periodic solutions of the full non-autonomous PT-symmetry managed problem and very good agreement is found between the two.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1308.3738
Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS)

We provide a systematic analysis of a prototypical nonlinear oscillator system respecting PT-symmetry i.e., one of them has gain and the other an equal and opposite amount of loss. Starting from the linear limit of the system, we extend considerations to the nonlinear case for both soft and hard cubic nonlinearities identifying symmetric and anti-symmetric breather solutions, as well as symmetry breaking variants thereof. We propose a reduction of the system to a Schr\”odinger type PT-symmetric dimer, whose detailed earlier understanding can explain many of the phenomena observed herein, including the PT phase transition. Nevertheless, there are also significant parametric as well as phenomenological potential differences between the two models and we discuss where these arise and where they are most pronounced. Finally, we also provide examples of the evolution dynamics of the different states in their regimes of instability.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.6047

Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS)

In this paper, we revisit one of the prototypical PT-symmetric oligomers, namely the trimer. We find all the relevant branches of “regular” solutions and analyze the bifurcations and instabilities thereof. Our work generalizes the formulation that was proposed recently in the case of dimers for the so-called “ghost states” of trimers, which we also identify and connect to symmetry-breaking bifurcations from the regular states. We also examine the dynamics of unstable trimers, as well as those of the ghost states in the parametric regime where the latter are found to exist. Finally, we present the current state of the art for optical experiments in PT-symmetric trimers, as well as experimental results in a gain-loss-gain three channel waveguide structure.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.2255
Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

In this work, we propose a PT-symmetric coupler whose arms are birefringent waveguides as a realistic physical model which leads to a so-called quadrimer i.e., a four complex field setting. We seek stationary solutions of the resulting linear and nonlinear model, identifying its linear point of PT symmetry breaking and examining the corresponding nonlinear solutions that persist up to this point, as well as, so-called, ghost states that bifurcate from them. We obtain the relevant symmetry breaking bifurcations and numerically follow the associated dynamics which give rise to growth/decay even within the PT-symmetric phase. Our obtained stationary nonlinear solutions are found to terminate in saddle-center bifurcations which are analogous to the linear PT-phase transition.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.1676
Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

We illustrate, through a series of prototypical examples, that linear parity-time (PT) symmetric lattices with extended gain/loss profiles are generically unstable, for any non-zero value of the gain/loss coefficient. Our examples include a parabolic real potential with a linear imaginary part and the cases of no real and constant or linear imaginary potentials. On the other hand, this instability can be avoided and the spectrum can be real for localized or compact PT-symmetric potentials. The linear lattices are analyzed through discrete Fourier transform techniques complemented by numerical computations.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.5815
Exactly Solvable and Integrable Systems (nlin.SI); Mathematical Physics (math-ph); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

In the present work we focus on the cases of two-site (dimer) and three-site (trimer) configurations, i.e. oligomers, respecting the parity-time (PT) symmetry, i.e., with a spatially odd gain-loss profile. We examine different types of solutions of such configurations with linear and nonlinear gain/loss profiles. Solutions beyond the linear PT-symmetry critical point as well as solutions with asymmetric linearization eigenvalues are found in both the nonlinear dimer and trimer. The latter feature is absent in linear PT-symmetric trimers, while both of them are absent in linear PT symmetric dimers. Furthermore, nonlinear gain/loss terms enable the existence of both symmetric and asymmetric solution profiles (and of bifurcations between them), while only symmetric solutions are present in the linear PT-symmetric dimers and trimers. The linear stability analysis around the obtained solutions is discussed and their dynamical evolution is explored by means of direct numerical simulations. Finally, a brief discussion is also given of recent progress in the context of PT-symmetric quadrimers.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.3871
Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

We examine a prototypical nonlinear Schrodinger model bearing a defocusing nonlinearity and Parity-Time (PT) symmetry. For such a model, the solutions can be identified numerically and characterized in the perturbative limit of small gain/loss. There we find two fundamental phenomena. First, the dark solitons that persist in the presence of the PT-symmetric potential are destabilized via a symmetry breaking (pitchfork) bifurcation. Second, the ground state and the dark soliton die hand-in-hand in a saddle-center bifurcation (a nonlinear analogue of the PT-phase transition) at a second critical value of the gain/loss parameter. The daughter states arising from the pitchfork are identified as “ghost states”, which are not exact solutions of the original system, yet they play a critical role in the system’s dynamics. A similar phenomenology is also pairwise identified for higher excited states, with e.g. the two-soliton structure bearing similar characteristics to the zero-soliton one, and the three-soliton state having the same pitchfork destabilization mechanism and saddle-center collision (in this case with the two-soliton) as the one-dark soliton. All of the above notions are generalized in two-dimensional settings for vortices, where the topological charge enforces the destabilization of a two-vortex state and the collision of a no-vortex state with a two-vortex one, of a one-vortex state with a three-vortex one, and so on. The dynamical manifestation of the instabilities mentioned above is examined through direct numerical simulations.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.2445
Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS); Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)

In this work we analyze PT-symmetric double-well potentials based on a two-mode picture. We reduce the problem into a PT-symmetric dimer and illustrate that the latter has effectively two fundamental bifurcations, a pitchfork (symmetry-breaking bifurcation) and a saddle-center one, which is the nonlinear analog of the PT-phase-transition. It is shown that the symmetry breaking leads to ghost states (amounting to growth or decay); although these states are not true solutions of the original continuum problem, the system’s dynamics closely follows them, at least in its metastable evolution. Past the second bifurcation, there are no longer states of the original continuum system. Nevertheless, the solutions can be analytically continued to yield a new pair of branches, which is also identified and dynamically examined. Our explicit analytical results for the dimer are directly compared to the full continuum problem, yielding a good agreement.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.1066
Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS); Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas); Mathematical Physics (math-ph)

We introduce four basic two-dimensional (2D) plaquette configurations with onsite cubic nonlinearities, which may be used as building blocks for 2D PT -symmetric lattices. For each configuration, we develop a dynamical model and examine its PT symmetry. The corresponding nonlinear modes are analyzed starting from the Hamiltonian limit, with zero value of the gain-loss coefficient. Once the relevant waveforms have been identified (chiefly, in an analytical form), their stability is examined by means of linearization in the vicinity of stationary points. This reveals diverse and, occasionally, fairly complex bifurcations. The evolution of unstable modes is explored by means of direct simulations. In particular, stable localized modes are found in these systems, although the majority of identified solutions is unstable.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.5530
Quantum Physics (quant-ph); High Energy Physics – Theory (hep-th)

We consider the nonlinear analogues of Parity-Time (\(\mathcal{PT}\)) symmetric linear systems exhibiting defocusing nonlinearities. We study the ground state and excited states (dark solitons and vortices) of the system and report the following remarkable features. For relatively weak values of the parameter \(\varepsilon\) controlling the strength of the \(\mathcal{PT}\)-symmetric potential, excited states undergo (analytically tractable) spontaneous symmetry breaking; as \(\varepsilon\) is further increased, the ground state and first excited state, as well as branches of higher multi-soliton (multi-vortex) states, collide in pairs and disappear in blue-sky bifurcations, in a way which is strongly reminiscent of the linear \(\mathcal{PT}\)-phase transition —thus termed the nonlinear \(\mathcal{PT}\)-phase transition. Past this critical point, initialization of, e.g., the former ground state leads to spontaneously emerging “soliton (vortex) sprinklers”.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.1310
Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS); Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)

In the present work we focus on the case of (few-site) configurations respecting the PT-symmetry. We examine the case of such “oligomers” with not only 2-sites, as in earlier works, but also the cases of 3- and 4-sites. While in the former case of recent experimental interest, the picture of existing stationary solutions and their stability is fairly straightforward, the latter cases reveal a considerable additional complexity of solutions, including ones that exist past the linear PT-breaking point in the case of the trimer, and more complex, even asymmetric solutions in the case of the quadrimer with nontrivial spectral and dynamical properties. Both the linear stability and the nonlinear dynamical properties of the obtained solutions are discussed.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.0809
Pattern Formation and Solitons (nlin.PS); Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)