Fig. 1. Schematic of anti-PT symmetric synthetic photonic lattice. (a) Two coupling fiber loops with a length difference and (b) corresponding temporal mesh lattice with anti-PT symmetry. (c) Distribution of the phase, gain, and loss.

Fig. 2. Band structures for G = 0, G = 0.1, G = 0.2, G = 0.3, G = 0.327, and G = 0.33, respectively. φ = π/2. The blue line represents the real part of the band, and the red line represents the imaginary part of the band.

Fig. 3. (a1), (b1) The pulse intensity evolution in the long loop is shown for φ = 0 and φ = 0.5π, respectively. The input period is N = 4. (c1), (d1) The pulse intensity evolution in the long loop is shown for N = 8 and N = 12 with φ = 0. The green dotted line is the location of the Talbot images.

Fig. 4. Input pulse period N = 4. (a1), (b1) Talbot carpets for φ₀ = 0.36π and φ₀ = 0.46π. G = 0. (c1), (d1) Talbot carpets for φ₀ = 0.15π and φ₀ = 0.5π. G = 0.21.

Fig. 5. (a1), (b1) Talbot carpets for G = 0.29 and G = 0.35. φ = 0. (c1), (d1) Talbot carpets for G = 0.25 and G = 0.31. φ = π/2. (e1), (f1) Talbot carpets for G = 0.29 and G = 0.35. φ = π.

Fig. 6. The curve representing the anti-PT symmetry breaking threshold in a two-dimensional parameter space of φ and γ.