Exceptional point and hysteresis trajectories in cold Rydberg atomic gases
The interplay between strong long-range interactions and the coherent driving contribute to the formation of complex patterns, symmetry, and novel phases of matter in many-body systems. However, long-range interactions may induce an additional dissipation channel, resulting in non-Hermitian many-body dynamics and the emergence of exceptional points in spectrum. Here, we report experimental observation of interaction-induced exceptional points in cold Rydberg atomic gases, revealing the breaking of charge-conjugation parity symmetry. By measuring the transmission spectrum under increasing and decreasing probe intensity, the interaction-induced hysteresis trajectories are observed, which give rise to non-Hermitian dynamics. We record the area enclosed by hysteresis loops and investigate the dynamics of hysteresis loops. The reported exceptional points and hysteresis trajectories in cold Rydberg atomic gases provide valuable insights into the underlying non-Hermitian physics in many-body systems, allowing us to study the interplay between long-range interactions and non-Hermiticity.
Authors
- Dong-Sheng Ding (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5051-4777)
- Tianyu Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0792-9272)
- Qifeng Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3036-6084)
- Guang‐Can Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3771-9185)
- Yu Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4903-8352)
- Dongyang Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3413-5419)
- Jun Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7835-9871)
- Qing Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6464-0977)
- Lihua Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2543-1547)
- Yajun Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9990-0812)
- Bang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3045-2019)
- Zhengyuan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7870-9656)
- Jia-Dou Nan
- Bao-Sen Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5641-6190)
- Enze Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8812-8222)
- Yi-Ming Yin
- Han-Chao Chen
- Shi-Yao Shao
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion (CN)
- Quantum Design (Germany) (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-04-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58850-y
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Quantum Mechanics and Non-Hermitian Physics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.48
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Major Science and Technology Projects in Anhui Province