Universal non-Hermitian flow in one-dimensional PT-symmetric quantum criticalities

Abstract

The critical point of a topological phase transition is described by a conformal field theory (CFT), where the finite-size corrections to the ground state energy are uniquely related to its central charge. We study the finite-size scaling of the energy of non-Hermitian Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model with parity and time-reversal symmetry ($\mathcal{PT}$) symmetry. We find that under open boundary condition (OBC), the energy scaling $E(L)\sim c/L$ reveals a negative central charge $c=-2$ at the non-Hermitian critical point, indicative of a non-unitary CFT. Furthermore, we discover a universal scaling function capturing the flow of a system from Dirac CFT with $c=1$ to a non-unitary CFT with $c=-2$. The scaling function demonstrates distinct behaviors at topologically non-trivial and trivial sides of critical points. Notably, within the realm of topological criticality, the scaling function exhibits an universal rise-dip-rise pattern, manifesting a characteristic singularity inherent in the non-Hermitian topological critical points. The analytic expression of the scaling function has been derived and is in good agreement with the numerical results.