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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Winding-control mechanism of non-Hermitian systems

Yongxu Fu1,* and Yi Zhang2,†

  • *Contact author: yongxufu@zjnu.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: frankzhangyi@pku.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, L022030 – Published 15 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6n5b-l8jv

Abstract

Non-Hermitian quantum systems exhibit various interesting and interconnected spectral, topological, and boundary-sensitive features. By introducing conditional boundary conditions (CBCs) for non-Hermitian quantum systems, we explore a winding-control mechanism that selectively collapses specific periodic boundary condition loop-type spectra onto their open boundary condition counterparts, guided by their specific winding numbers, together with a composite reconstruction of the Brillouin zone (BZ) and generalized Brillouin zone (GBZ). The corresponding eigenstates also manifest nontrivial skin effects or extended behaviors arising from the interplay between BZ and GBZ structures. Intuitively, the winding-control mechanism is tied to the residual imaginary velocity originating from the corresponding Fermi sea, establishing the CBCs as the transition boundaries between different non-Hermitian topology of spectral windings. Furthermore, we can generalize our control by incorporating similarity transformations and holomorphic mappings with the boundary controls. We demonstrate the winding control numerically within various models, which enriches our knowledge of non-Hermitian physics across the spectrum, topology, and bulk-boundary correspondence.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, L022030– Published 15 May, 2026
  • Received 25 June 2025
  • Accepted 22 April 2026
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