Abstract
Bender et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 5243 (1998)] have developed PT-symmetric quantum theory as an extension of quantum theory to non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. We show that when this model has a local PT symmetry acting on composite systems, it violates the nonsignaling principle of relativity. Since the case of global PT symmetry is known to reduce to standard quantum mechanics A. Mostafazadeh [J. Math. Phys. 43, 205 (2001)], this shows that the PT-symmetric theory is either a trivial extension or likely false as a fundamental theory. © 2014 American Physical Society.