Heisenberg dynamics for non self-adjoint Hamiltonians: symmetries and derivations

Abstract

In some recent literature the role of non self-adjoint Hamiltonians, $H\neq H^\dagger$, is often considered in connection with gain-loss systems. The dynamics for these systems is, most of the times, given in terms of a Schr\"odinger equation. In this paper we rather focus on the Heisenberg-like picture of quantum mechanics, stressing the (few) similarities and the (many) differences with respected to the standard Heisenberg picture for systems driven by self-adjoint Hamiltonians. In particular, the role of the symmetries, *-derivations and integrals of motion is discussed.