Application of Pseudo-Hermitian Quantum Mechanics to a PT-Symmetric Hamiltonian with a Continuum of Scattering States

Abstract

We extend the application of the techniques developed within the framework of the pseudo-Hermitian quantum mechanics to study a unitary quantum system described by an imaginary PT-symmetric potential v(x) having a continuous real spectrum. For this potential that has recently been used, in the context of optical potentials, for modelling the propagation of electromagnetic waves travelling in a wave guide half and half filed with gain and absorbing media, we give a perturbative construction of the physical Hilbert space, observables, localized states, and the equivalent Hermitian Hamiltonian. Ignoring terms of order three or higher in the non-Hermiticity parameter zeta, we show that the equivalent Hermitian Hamiltonian has the form $\frac{p^2}{2m}+\frac{\zeta^2}{2}\sum_{n=0}^\infty\{\alpha_n(x),p^{2n}\}$ with $\alpha_n(x)$ vanishing outside an interval that is three times larger than the support of $v(x)$, i.e., in 2/3 of the physical interaction region the potential $v(x)$ vanishes identically. We provide a physical interpretation for this unusual behavior and comment on the classical limit of the system.