Coupling a light-amplifying gain material with a light-absorbing lossy material should, if their strengths are carefully balanced, result in a system with no net amplification or absorption. However, this overall symmetry can spontaneously break down at a specific value of gain-loss strength. Surprisingly, scientists find that this ``symmetry-breaking'' point is extremely robust to modifications of the system by its optical boundary conditions and explain why.
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A 2013 study studied this question.
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