How Topology and Non-Hermiticity Enhance a Quantum Battery

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A quantum battery stores energy in quantum degrees of freedom. The central question is not only how much energy it can store, but also how rapidly and robustly it can be charged. In our recent work, we investigate a quantum battery built from a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chain and driven by an alternating gain-loss protocol.

The SSH lattice has alternating strong and weak couplings. In its topological regime, states can become localized near the boundary rather than spread throughout the bulk. The gain and loss make the charging dynamics non-Hermitian and introduce exceptional points, where both eigenvalues and eigenstates coalesce.

The key result is that topology and non-Hermiticity do not simply contribute two separate effects. Their interplay creates an edge-state exceptional point at a weaker gain-loss strength than the bulk exceptional-point thresholds. This boundary mode provides a distinct route for controlling the transient and long-time charging behavior.

The model offers a clear setting for understanding how band topology, boundary localization, and non-Hermitian dynamics can be combined in quantum energy devices.

Read the paper in Physical Review A

Topology | 李梓民 Zi-Min Li

How Topology and Non-Hermiticity Enhance a Quantum Battery