Transition elements for a non-Hermitian quadratic Hamiltonian

The non-Hermitian quadratic Hamiltonian H=ωa†a+αa2+βa†2 is analyzed, where a† and a are harmonic oscillator creation and annihilation operators and ω, α, and β are real constants. For the case that ω2−4αβ⩾0, it is shown using operator techniques that the Hamiltonian possesses real and positive eigenvalues. A generalized Bogoliubov transformation allows the energy eigenstates to be constructed from the algebra and states of the harmonic oscillator. The eigenstates are shown to possess an imaginary norm for a large range of the parameter space. Finding the orthonormal dual space allows the inner product to be redefined using the complexification procedure of Bender et al. for non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. Transition probabilities governed by H are shown to be manifestly unitary when the complexification procedure is followed. A specific transition element between harmonic oscillator states is evaluated for both the Hermitian and non-Hermitian cases to identify the differences in time evolution.