Symmetry-protected exceptional rings in two-dimensional correlated systems with chiral symmetry

Emergence of exceptional points in two dimensions is one of the remarkable phenomena in non-Hermitian systems. We here elucidate the impacts of symmetry on the non-Hermitian physics. Specifically, we analyze chiral symmetric correlated systems in equilibrium where the non-Hermitian phenomena are induced by the finite lifetime of quasiparticles. Intriguingly, our analysis reveals that the combination of symmetry and nonHermiticity results in topological degeneracies of energy bands which we call symmetry-protected exceptional rings (SPERs). We observe the emergence of SPERs by analyzing a non-Hermitian Dirac Hamiltonian. Furthermore, by employing the dynamical mean-field theory, we demonstrate the emergence of SPERs in a correlated honeycomb lattice model whose single-particle spectrum is described by a non-Hermitian Dirac Hamiltonian. We uncover that the SPERs survive even beyond the non-Hermitian Dirac Hamiltonian, which is related to a zeroth Chern number. The argument of symmetry protection also holds for three dimensions, elucidating the presence of a symmetry-protected exceptional torus.