An existence criterion for the \(\mathcal{PT}\)-symmetric phase transition (Q478685)

The authors consider the family of Schrödinger operators on the line \(H(g)\) given by \[ H(g)u = -u'' + [(x^{2M}/(2M)) - g(x^{M-1}/(M-1))]u, \] where \(g\) is a complex parameter and \(M\) is a positive even integer. The focus is on the case when \(g\) is pure imaginary where the authors show that \(H(g)\) exhibits the so-called \(\mathcal{PT}\)-symmetry phase transition. More precisely, they show that for each eigenvalue \(E_n\) we have that \(E_n\) remains real for all \(|g|\) sufficiently small (how small depends on \(n\)), while \(E_n\) turns into a pair of complex conjugate eigenvalues for all \(|g|\) sufficiently large (how large, also, depends on \(n\)).