Discovery of an intrinsic non-Hermitian phase transition in a bulk condensed-matter system.

Authors

Jingwen Li, Michael Turaev, Masakazu Matsubara, Kristin Kliemt, Cornelius Krellner, Shovon Pal, Manfred Fiebig, Johann Kroha

Published in

Science (New York, N.Y.). Volume 393. Issue 6816. Pages 1152-1155. Sep 10, 2026. Epub Sep 10, 2026.

Abstract

Across regular phase transitions, systems remain in thermal equilibrium. However, when a system is driven far from equilibrium, non-Hermitian phase transitions may arise where the dynamical behavior-rather than steady properties-undergoes a qualitative change at a critical, so-called exceptional point. We experimentally realize a non-Hermitian phase transition in a bulk condensed-matter system. Optical excitation creates charge carriers in ferromagnetic europium monoxide. In a temperature-dependent interplay with the Hermitian transition to ferromagnetic order, a non-Hermitian change of the relaxation dynamics occurs, manifesting in our time-resolved reflection data as the transition from biexponential real to single-exponential complex decay. Our theory models this behavior and suggests that non-Hermitian phase transitions may generically emerge in bulk condensed matter.

PMID:
42721237
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 11 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.