{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,15]],"date-time":"2026-09-15T01:20:44Z","timestamp":1789435244166,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"American Physical Society (APS)","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,17]],"date-time":"2026-03-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1773705600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000161","name":"National Institute of Standards and Technology","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000161","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000181","name":"Air Force Office of Scientific Research","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["FA9550-22-1-0339"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FA9550-22-1-0339"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000181","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation","award":["OMA-2120757"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["OMA-2120757"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.aps.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Phys. Rev. Lett."],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,13]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>In 1996, Hatano and Nelson proposed a non-Hermitian lattice model containing an imaginary Peierls phase [], which subsequent analyses revealed to be an instance of a new class of topological systems. Here, we experimentally realize a continuum analog to this model containing an imaginary gauge potential using a homogeneous spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Non-Hermiticity is introduced by adding tunable spin-dependent loss via microwave coupling to a subspace with spontaneous emission. We demonstrate that the resulting Heisenberg equations of motion for position and momentum depend explicitly on the system\u2019s phase-space distribution. First, we observe collective nonreciprocal transport in real space, with a \u201cself-acceleration\u201d that decreases with the BEC\u2019s spatial extent, consistent with non-Hermitian Gross-Pitaevskii simulations. We then examine localized edge states: the relatively strong interactions in our BEC suppress the formation of topological edge states, yielding instead highly excited states localized by an interplay between self-acceleration and wave function spreading. Finally, we confirm that our non-Hermitian description remains valid at all times by comparing it to a multilevel master equation treatment.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1103\/tpfc-n3bq","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,13]],"date-time":"2026-02-13T18:01:11Z","timestamp":1771005671000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1103\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Imaginary Gauge Potentials in a Non-Hermitian Spin-Orbit Coupled Quantum Gas"],"prefix":"10.1103","volume":"136","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8436-9192","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"J.","family":"Tao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04xz38214","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Joint Quantum Institute"},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/047s2c258","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of Maryland and National Institute of Standards and Technology, College 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All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.","name":"copyright_statement","label":"Copyright statement","group":{"name":"copyright","label":"copyright"}},{"value":"2026","name":"copyright_year","label":"Copyright year","group":{"name":"copyright","label":"copyright"}},{"value":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/","name":"creative_commons_license","label":"Creative Commons license","group":{"name":"licenses","label":"Licenses"}},{"value":"\u00a92026 The authors","name":"copyright_holder","label":"Copyright holder","group":{"name":"copyright","label":"copyright"}}],"article-number":"113401"}}