Quantum phase transitions in nonhermitian harmonic oscillator

Abstract: The Stone theorem requires that in a physical Hilbert space ${\cal H}$ the time-evolution of a stable quantum system is unitary if and only if the corresponding Hamiltonian $H$ is self-adjoint. Sometimes, a simpler picture of the evolution may be constructed in a manifestly unphysical Hilbert space ${\cal K}$ in which $H$ is nonhermitian but ${\cal PT}-$symmetric. In applications, unfortunately, one only rarely succeeds in circumventing the key technical obstacle which lies in the necessary reconstruction of the physical Hilbert space ${\cal H}$. For a ${\cal PT}-$symmetric version of the spiked harmonic oscillator we show that in the dynamical regime of the unavoided level crossings such a reconstruction of ${\cal H}$ becomes feasible and, moreover, obtainable by non-numerical means. The general form of such a reconstruction of ${\cal H}$ enables one to render every exceptional unavoided-crossing point tractable as a genuine, phenomenologically most appealing quantum-phase-transition instant.