Abstract In the past few years, concepts from non-Hermitian (NH) physics, originally developed within the context of quantum field theories, have been successfully deployed over a wide range of physical settings where wave dynamics are known to play a key role. In optics, a special class of NH Hamiltonians – which respects parity-time symmetry – has been intensely pursued along several fronts. What makes this family of systems so intriguing is the prospect of phase transitions and NH singularities that can in turn lead to a plethora of counterintuitive phenomena. Quite recently, these ideas have permeated several other fields of science and technology in a quest to achieve new behaviors and functionalities in nonconservative environments that would have otherwise been impossible in standard Hermitian arrangements. Here, we provide an overview of recent advancements in these emerging fields, with emphasis on photonic NH platforms, exceptional point dynamics, and the very promising interplay between non-Hermiticity and topological physics.

中文翻译：

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非厄米和拓扑光子学：特殊点上的光学

摘要 在过去几年中，最初在量子场论背景下发展起来的非厄米 (NH) 物理学的概念已成功部署在广泛的物理环境中，其中已知波动力学起着关键作用。在光学中，已经在几个方面强烈追求了一类特殊的 NH 哈密顿量——它尊重奇偶时间对称性。使这一系列系统如此有趣的原因是相变和 NH 奇点的前景，这反过来又会导致大量违反直觉的现象。最近，这些想法已经渗透到其他几个科学和技术领域，以寻求在非保守环境中实现新的行为和功能，否则在标准 Hermitian 安排中是不可能的。这里，