Unitary Scattering Protected by Pseudo-Hermiticity

Hermitian systems possess unitary scattering. However, the Hermiticity is unnecessary for a unitary scattering although the scattering under the influence of non-Hermiticity is mostly non-unitary. Here we prove that the unitary scattering is protected by certain type of pseudo-Hermiticity and unaffected by the degree of non-Hermiticity. The energy conservation is violated in the scattering process and recovers after scattering. The subsystem of the pseudo-Hermitian scattering center including only the connection sites is Hermitian. These findings provide fundamental insights on the unitary scattering, pseudo-Hermiticity, and energy conservation, and are promising for light propagation, mesoscopic electron transport, and quantum interference in non-Hermitian systems.