Steady-state edge burst: From free-particle systems to interaction-induced phenomena

Abstract

The interplay between the non-Hermitian skin effect and the imaginary gap of lossy lattices results in the edge burst, a boundary-induced dynamical phenomenon in which an exceptionally large portion of particle loss occurs at the edge. Here, we find that this intriguing non-Hermitian dynamical phenomenon can be exactly mapped into the steady-state density distribution of a corresponding open quantum system. Consequently, the bulk-edge scaling relation of loss probability in the edge burst maps to that of steady-state density. Furthermore, we introduce a many-body open-system model in which the two-body loss generates an interaction-induced non-Hermitian skin effect. Using the positive-$P$ method, we demonstrate the validity of the scaling relation for steady-state correlators. These results provide a unique perspective on the interaction-induced many-body non-Hermitian skin effect. Our predictions are testable in state-of-the-art experimental platforms.