title: Observation of a chiral state in a microwave cavity.
abstract: A microwave experiment has been realized to measure the phase difference of the oscillating electric field at two points inside the cavity. The technique has been applied to a dissipative resonator which exhibits a singularity-called exceptional point-in its eigenvalue and eigenvector spectrum. At the singularity, two modes coalesce with a phase difference of pi/2. We conclude that the state excited at the singularity has a definitive chirality.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Kernphysik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dembowski
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dietz
authors.forename: H-D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Gräf
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Harney
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heine
authors.forename: W D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Heiss
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Richter