  The XX spin-chain with non-Hermitian diagonal boundary conditions is shown to
be quasi-Hermitian for special values of the boundary parameters. This is
proved by explicit construction of a new inner product employing a
"quasi-fermion" algebra in momentum space where creation and annihilation
operators are not related via Hermitian conjugation. For a special example,
when the boundary fields lie on the imaginary axis, we show the spectral
equivalence of the quasi-Hermitian XX spin-chain with a non-local fermion
model, where long range hopping of the particles occurs as the non-Hermitian
boundary fields increase in strength. The corresponding Hamiltonian
interpolates between the open XX and the quantum group invariant XXZ model at
the free fermion point. For an even number of sites the former is known to be
related to a CFT with central charge c=1, while the latter has been connected
to a logarithmic CFT with central charge c=-2. We discuss the underlying
algebraic structures and show that for an odd number of sites the superalgebra
symmetry U(gl(1|1)) can be extended from the unit circle along the imaginary
axis. We relate the vanishing of one of its central elements to the appearance
of Jordan blocks in the Hamiltonian.
