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I have just started studying the $PT$-symmetric and non-hermitian hamiltonians. But I am not able to interpret the imaginary part of the hamiltonian. If Hamiltonian is basically the total energy of the system then how can it be complex?

please help.

Qmechanic
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    The Hamiltonian is not required to be the energy, not even classically, see https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/194772/50583. – ACuriousMind Mar 08 '21 at 16:53
  • Appart from what @ACuriousMind said, in QM the Hamiltonian is just an operator, energies come from its eigenvalues. If $H$ is hermitian, all its eigenvalues are real, but there are some non-hermitian hamiltonian with real eigenvalues. More info here (https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/105563/) and links therein. – AFG Mar 08 '21 at 16:56
  • Thank you for your help! –  Mar 08 '21 at 16:59

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