Hamiltonian formulation of the standard $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric nonlinear Schrödinger dimer

Abstract: The standard $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric dimer is a linearly-coupled two-site discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with one site losing and the other one gaining energy at the same rate. We show that despite gain and loss, the standard $\mathcal{PT}$-dimer is a Hamiltonian system. We also produce a Lagrangian formulation for the dimer.