Hall 123

PT Symmetry, Supersymmetry and Nonlinearity

Subhrajit Modak

Weizmann Institute, Israel

In the past few years it has been recognized that the requirement of Hermiticity, which is often stated as an axiom of quantum mechanics, may be replaced by the less mathematical and more physical requirement of space-time reflection symmetry (PT-symmetry) without losing any of the essential physical features of quantum mechanics. Theories defined by non-Hermitian PT-symmetric Hamiltonians exhibit strange and unexpected properties at the classical as well as at the quantum level. We investigate the consequences and status of symmetries in presence of nonlinearity.