Phase Diagram of a Non-Hermitian Chern Insulator: Destabilization of Chiral Edge States and Bulk–Boundary Correspondence

A non-Hermitian Chern insulator with gain/loss-type non-Hermiticity shows a peculiar gap closing; when a nontrivial Chern insulator phase changes to a gapless phase, conduction and valence bands are combined into one band owing to destabilization of chiral edge states. A previous recipe of non-Hermitian bulk–boundary correspondence is insufficient for this system since such a gap closing is beyond its scope. Here, we revise the recipe by taking the peculiar gap closing into account and apply it to the non-Hermitian Chern insulator. We demonstrate that the bulk–boundary correspondence holds in the system including a destabilization of chiral edge states. A phase diagram derived from the bulk–boundary correspondence is shown to be consistent with spectra of the system.