Supersymmetry, PT-symmetry and spectral bifurcation Original Research Article

We demonstrate that large class of PT-symmetric complex potentials, which can have isospectral real partner potentials, possess two different superpotentials. In the parameter domain, where the superpotential is unique, the spectrum is real and shape-invariant, leading to translational shift in a suitable parameter by real units. The case of two different superpotentials, leading to same potential, yields broken PT-symmetry, the energy spectra in the two phases being separated by a bifurcation. Interestingly, these two superpotentials generate the two disjoint sectors of the Hilbert space. In the broken case, shape invariance produces complex parametric shifts.