We consider non-Hermitian dynamics of a quantum particle hopping on a one-dimensional tight-binding lattice made of $N$ sites with asymmetric hopping rates induced by a time-periodic oscillating imaginary gauge field. A deeply different behavior is found depending on the lattice topology. While in a linear chain (open boundary conditions) an oscillating field can lead to a complex quasienergy spectrum via a multiple parametric resonance; in a ring topology (Born–von Karman periodic boundary conditions) an entirely real quasienergy spectrum can be found and the dynamics is pseudo-Hermitian. In the large-$N$ limit, parametric instability and pseudo-Hermitian dynamics in the two different lattice topologies are physically explained on the basis of a simple picture of wave-packet propagation.

• Received 30 March 2016
• Revised 4 June 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.022102