Self-Healing of Non-Hermitian Topological Skin Modes

A unique feature of non-Hermitian (NH) systems is the NH skin effect, i.e., the edge localization of an extensive number of bulk-band eigenstates in a lattice with open or semi-infinite boundaries. Unlike extended Bloch waves in Hermitian systems, the skin modes are normalizable eigenstates of the Hamiltonian that originate from the intrinsic non-Hermitian point-gap topology of the Bloch band energy spectra. Here, we unravel a fascinating property of NH skin modes, namely self-healing, i.e., the ability to self-reconstruct their shape after being scattered off by a space-time potential.

Automated summary

A unique feature of non-Hermitian systems is the skin effect, which refers to the edge localization of a considerable number of bulk-band eigenstates in a lattice with specific boundaries. Unlike Bloch waves in Hermitian systems, the skin modes in non-Hermitian systems are normalizable eigenstates originating from the intrinsic non-Hermitian point-gap topology of the Bloch band energy spectra. Additionally, these skin modes exhibit a fascinating property known as self-healing, where they can reconstruct their shape after being scattered by a space-time potential.