Pseudo-Hermiticity and Electromagnetic Wave Propagation in Dispersive Media

Pseudo-Hermitian operators appear in the solution of Maxwell's equations for stationary non-dispersive media with arbitrary (space-dependent) permittivity and permeability tensors. We offer an extension of the results in this direction to certain stationary dispersive media. In particular, we use the WKB approximation to derive an explicit expression for the planar time-harmonic solutions of Maxwell's equations in an inhomogeneous dispersive medium and study the combined affect of inhomogeneity and dispersion.Comment: 8 pages, to appear in Phys. Lett.

Pseudo-Hermiticity for a Class of Nondiagonalizable Hamiltonians

We give two characterization theorems for pseudo-Hermitian (possibly nondiagonalizable) Hamiltonians with a discrete spectrum that admit a block-diagonalization with finite-dimensional diagonal blocks. In particular, we prove that for such an operator H the following statements are equivalent. 1. H is pseudo-Hermitian; 2. The spectrum of H consists of real and/or complex-conjugate pairs of eigenvalues and the geometric multiplicity and the dimension of the diagonal blocks for the complex-conjugate eigenvalues are identical; 3. H is Hermitian with respect to a positive-semidefinite inner product. We further discuss the relevance of our findings for the merging of a complex-conjugate pair of eigenvalues of diagonalizable pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians in general, and the PT-symmetric Hamiltonians and the effective Hamiltonian for a certain closed FRW minisuperspace quantum cosmological model in particular.Comment: 17 pages, slightly revised version, to appear in J. Math. Phy

On the Dynamical Invariants and the Geometric Phases for a General Spin System in a Changing Magnetic Field

We consider a class of general spin Hamiltonians of the form $H_s(t)=H_0(t)+H'(t)$ where $H_0(t)$ and $H'(t)$ describe the dipole interaction of the spins with an arbitrary time-dependent magnetic field and the internal interaction of the spins, respectively. We show that if $H'(t)$ is rotationally invariant, then $H_s(t)$ admits the same dynamical invariant as $H_0(t)$. A direct application of this observation is a straightforward rederivation of the results of Yan et al [Phys. Lett. A, Vol: 251 (1999) 289 and Vol: 259 (1999) 207] on the Heisenberg spin system in a changing magnetic field.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

On the Pseudo-Hermiticity of a Class of PT-Symmetric Hamiltonians in One Dimension

For a given standard Hamiltonian H=[p-A(x)]^2/(2m)+V(x) with arbitrary complex scalar potential V and vector potential A, with x real, we construct an invertible antilinear operator \tau such that H is \tau-anti-pseudo-Hermitian, i.e., H^\dagger=\tau H\tau^{-1}. We use this result to give the explicit form of a linear Hermitian invertible operator with respect to which any standard PT-symmetric Hamiltonian with a real degree of freedom is pseudo-Hermitian. Our results do not make use of the assumption that H is diagonalizable or that its spectrum is discrete.Comment: published versio