Observation of parity-time symmetry for evanescent waves

Parity-time (PT) symmetry has enabled the demonstration of fascinating wave phenomena in non-Hermitian systems characterized by precisely balanced gain and loss. Until now, the exploration and observation of PT symmetry in scattering settings have largely been limited to propagating waves. Here, we demonstrate a versatile coupled-resonator acoustic waveguide (CRAW) system that enables the observation of PT-symmetric scattering responses for evanescent waves within a bandgap. By examining the generalized scattering matrix in the evanescent wave regime, we observe hallmark PT-symmetric phenomena—including phase transitions at an exceptional point, anisotropic transmission resonances, and laser-absorber modes—in systems that do not require balanced distributions of gain and loss. Owing to the peculiar energy transfer features of evanescent waves, our results not only demonstrate a distinct pathway for observing PT symmetry, but also enable strategies for exotic energy tunneling mechanisms, paving fresh directions for wave engineering grounded in non-Hermitian physics. Non-Hermitian physics and parity-time (PT) symmetry are of broad interest in classical wave systems. This work demonstrates evanescent wave manipulation and scattering control based on PT symmetry in a versatile coupled-resonator acoustic waveguide (CRAW) system, which not only extends the framework of non-Hermitian physics but also offers strategies for near-field manipulation and control.