PT symmetry breaking and exceptional points for a class of inhomogeneous complex potentials

We study a three-parameter family of PT-symmetric Hamiltonians, related via the ODE/IM correspondence to the Perk–Schultz models. We show that real eigenvalues merge and become complex at quadratic and cubic exceptional points, and explore the corresponding Jordan block structures by exploiting the quasi-exact solvability of a subset of the models. The mapping of the phase diagram is completed using a combination of numerical, analytical and perturbative approaches. Among other things this reveals some novel properties of the Bender–Dunne polynomials, and gives new insight into a phase transition to infinitely many complex eigenvalues that was first observed by Bender and Boettcher. A new exactly solvable limit, the inhomogeneous complex square well, is also identified.