Higher order coherence as witness of exceptional point in Hermitian bosonic Kitaev dimer

Abstract The non-analyticity induced by exceptional points (EPs) has manifestations not only in non-Hermitian but also in Hermitian systems. In this work, we focus on a minimal Hermitian bosonic Kitaev model to reveal the dynamical demonstration of EPs in a Hermitian system. It is shown that the EPs separate the parameter space into four regions, in which the systems are characterized by different equivalent Hamiltonians, including the harmonic oscillator, the inverted harmonic oscillator, and their respective counterparts. We employ the second-order intensity correlation to characterize a nonequilibrium quantum phase transition by calculating the time evolution of a trivial initial state. The results indicate that the concept of the EP can be detected in a small Hermitian bosonic system.