Non-Hermitian Generalization of Rayleigh-Schr\"odinger Perturbation Theory

Abstract

While perturbation theories constitute a significant foundation of modern quantum system analysis, extending them from the Hermitian to the non-Hermitian regime remains a non-trivial task. In this work, we generalize the Rayleigh-Schr\"odinger perturbation theory to the non-Hermitian regime by employing a geometric formalism. This framework allows us to compute perturbative corrections to eigenstates and eigenvalues of Hamiltonians iteratively to any order. Furthermore, we observe that the recursion equation for the eigenstates resembles the form of the Girard-Newton formulas, which helps us uncover the general solution to the recursion equation. Moreover, we demonstrate that the perturbation method proposed in this paper reduces to the standard Rayleigh-Schr\"odinger perturbation theory in the Hermitian regime.