Discrete-coordinate crypto-Hermitian quantum system controlled by time-dependent Robin boundary conditions

Abstract

A family of exactly solvable quantum square wells with discrete coordinates and with certain non-stationary Hermiticity-violating Robin boundary conditions is proposed and studied. Manifest non-Hermiticity of the model in conventional Hilbert space Hfriendly is required to coexist with the unitarity of system in another, ad hoc Hilbert space Hphysical. Thus, quantum mechanics in its non-Hermitian interaction picture (NIP) representation is to be used. We must construct the time-dependent states (say, ψ(t)) as well as the time-dependent observables (say, Λ(t)). Their evolution in time is generated by the operators denoted, here, by the respective symbols G(t) (a Schrödinger-equation generator) and Σ(t) (a Heisenberg-equation generator, a.k.a. quantum Coriolis force). The unitarity of evolution in Hphysical is then guaranteed by the reality of spectrum of the energy observable alias Hamiltonian H(t) = G(t) + Σ(t). The applicability of these ideas is illustrated via an N by N matrix model. At N = 2, closed formulae are presented not only for the measurable instantaneous energy spectrum but also for all of the eligible time-dependent physical inner-product metrics Θ(N=2)(t), for the related Dyson maps Ω(N=2)(t), for the Coriolis force Σ(N=2)(t) as well as, in the very ultimate step of the construction, for the truly nontrivial Schrödinger-equation generator G(N=2)(t). © 2024 The Author(s).