Nodal phases in non-Hermitian wallpaper crystals

Abstract

Symmetry and non-Hermiticity play pivotal roles in photonic lattices. While symmetries, such as parity-time (PT) symmetry, have attracted ample attention, more intricate crystalline symmetries have been neglected in comparison. Here, we investigate the impact of the 17 wallpaper space groups of two-dimensional crystals on non-Hermitian band structures. We show that the non-trivial space group representations enforce degeneracies at high symmetry points and dictate their dispersion away from these points. In combination with either T or PT, the symmorphic p4 mm symmetry and the non-symmorphic p2mg, p2gg, and p4gm symmetries protect exceptional chains intersecting at the pertinent high symmetry points.