Nonlinear Anti-(Parity-Time) Symmetric Dimer

In the present work we propose a nonlinear anti-PT-symmetric dimer, that at the linear level has been experimentally created in the realm of electric circuit resonators. We find four families of solutions, the so-called upper and lower branches, both in a symmetric and in an asymmetric (symmetry-broken) form. We unveil analytically and confirm numerically the critical thresholds for the existence of such branches and explore the bifurcations (such as saddle-node ones) that delimit their existence, as well as transcritical ones that lead to their potential exchange of stability. We find that out of the four relevant branches, only one, the upper symmetric branch, corresponds to a spectrally and dynamically robust solution. We subsequently leverage detailed direct numerical computations in order to explore the dynamics of the different states, corroborating our spectral analysis results.

Automated summary

In this work, a nonlinear anti-PT-symmetric dimer is proposed and four families of solutions are found, with only one being spectrally and dynamically robust. The critical thresholds for the existence of these branches are analyzed and numerical computations confirm the results.