Noise-induced revival of dynamical skin effects in quasiperiodic non-Hermitian systems
Phys. Rev. B 113, 174305 – Published 14 May, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2f5t-gc98
Abstract
The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) refers to the accumulation of an extensive number of eigenstates at system boundaries under open boundary conditions. As a dynamical consequence, wave packets in such systems drift and ultimately accumulate at a boundary, giving rise to the dynamical skin effect (DSE). While strong quasiperiodic potentials are known to suppress the DSE by inducing localization, we show that the introduction of Ornstein-Uhlenbeck noise unexpectedly restores it. Using perturbative analysis, we demonstrate that noise effectively maps the non-Hermitian Schrödinger dynamics onto a nonreciprocal master equation, whose complex spectrum develops a noise-induced point gap. This mechanism enables delocalization, reinstates directional transport, and revives the DSE even in regimes where the static NHSE is absent. Moreover, the relaxation dynamics exhibit a nonmonotonic dependence on noise strength, reflecting a competition between noise-assisted delocalization and noise-induced decoherence. Our results uncover a noise-enabled mechanism for resurrecting the DSE and suggest a new route for controlling transport in quasiperiodic, open quantum systems.
