Gouy Phase across PT-Symmetry Breaking in Non-Hermitian Dirac Systems

Abstract

We study relativistic beam-like wave packets governed by a quasi-Hermitian massive Dirac Hamiltonian and uncover anomalous Gouy-phase behavior in non-Hermitian dynamics. We show that the Gouy phase provides a sensitive probe of the global $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry-breaking threshold: it remains purely real in the globally unbroken, quasi-Hermitian regime, while, after crossing the exceptional point, the Gouy phase changes sign and acquires an imaginary component. At the exceptional point, the Gouy-phase variation vanishes in the small-mass limit but becomes maximal for large masses, revealing a counterintuitive crossover from effectively classical to increasingly wave-like quantum behavior. We propose an experimental scheme to measure the components of the non-Hermitian Gouy phase in the broken regime by monitoring the attenuation of a light beam propagating through a lossy waveguide. These results highlight the potential of the non-Hermitian Gouy phase for photonic applications, including the determination of threshold conditions and the design and control of systems with gain and loss.