PT symmetry-enriched non-unitary criticality

Abstract

The interplay between topology and quantum criticality has given rise to the notion of symmetry-enriched criticality, which has attracted considerable attention in recent years. In this Letter, we demonstrate that parity time (PT) symmetry enriches non-Hermitian critical points, establishing a topologically distinct class of non unitary criticality. Through the analytic solution of PT symmetric free fermion models, we reveal a new family of critical points that are topologically nontrivial and host robust edge modes. Crucially, these points cannot be adiabatically connected to trivial ones without breaking PT symmetry or crossing a multicritical point, and distinct from Hermitian counterparts. We further show that, at these PT symmetry enriched critical points, conformal scaling of the entanglement entropy necessarily comes with a quantized imaginary subleading term, whose quantization is set by the number of boundary modes in the reduced density matrix. This term is robust against PT symmetric disorder and interactions, and admits an interpretation as the Affleck Ludwig g factor associated with the boundary states. These phenomena are shown to arise from a generalized mass inversion unique to non-Hermitian criticality.