Ring-frustrated non-Hermitian XY model

Abstract We study a non-Hermitian version of XY closed chain with odd number of lattice sites. We consider both anti-ferromagnetic coupling and also a symmetric non-collinear spin coupling. It is found that the energy spectrum is real in certain region of the parameter space. In contrast to previous non-Hermitian models, the ground state is a state with one mode occupied inside this real energy spectrum region, instead of the artificially identified vacuum state. At the same time, there appears a gapless excitation, which is made by kink-like spin configurations. It is also found that this kink phase has non-trivial topological invariant.