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    Non-Abelian Route to Z2 Non-Hermitian Skin Effects

    Huiyan Tang1,*, Yaxuan Zhang2,*, Ziteng Wang1,*, Liqin Tang1, Daohong Song1, Jingjun Xu1, Weixuan Zhang2,†, Hrvoje Buljan1,3, Xiangdong Zhang2,‡ et al.

    Zhigang Chen1,4,§

    • 1TEDA Applied Physics Institute and School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300457, China
    • 2School of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
    • 3Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Bijenička Cesta 32, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
    • 4College of Photonics and Optical Engineering, Aerospace Information Technology University, Jinan 250299, China

    • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
    • †Contact author: zhangwx@bit.edu.cn
    • ‡Contact author: zhangxd@bit.edu.cn
    • §Contact author: zgchen@nankai.edu.cn

    Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 126605 – Published 15 September, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/b728-gh5v

    Abstract

    The non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE), characterized by extensive boundary accumulation of eigenstates under open boundary conditions, has emerged as a central phenomenon in non-Hermitian physics. Established routes to the NHSE are usually based on Abelian nonreciprocal mechanisms, including an equivalent approach involving gain and loss combined with synthetic gauge fields. Here, we demonstrate that non-Abelian couplings can generate the NHSE through a distinct reciprocal mechanism, giving rise to a time-reversal-symmetry-protected Z2 skin effect with pseudospin-resolved boundary localization and dynamical pseudospin separation. We further show that local breaking of time-reversal symmetry at a boundary induces a pseudospin-inversion reflection process, converting the bidirectional Z2 skin response into unidirectional boundary localization. Experimentally, we implement a representative four-level model using a programmable topolectrical circuit and directly observe both the predicted NHSE and the boundary-induced pseudospin-inversion reflection. Our results identify non-Abelian coupling as a mechanism for symmetry-controlled skin effects in reciprocal systems, opening new avenues for realizing nonreciprocity-free topological materials and devices.

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