Spectral Theory and Quantum

Mechanics Mathematical Foundations

of Quantum Theories Symmetries and
Introduction to the Algebraic
Formulation Valter Moretti
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/spectral-theory-and-quantum-mechanics-mathematic
al-foundations-of-quantum-theories-symmetries-and-introduction-to-the-algebraic-for
mulation-valter-moretti/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics Neumann

https://textbookfull.com/product/mathematical-foundations-of-
quantum-mechanics-neumann/

Introduction to Quantum Mechanics David J. Griffiths

https://textbookfull.com/product/introduction-to-quantum-
mechanics-david-j-griffiths/

A Mathematical Companion to Quantum Mechanics 1st

Edition Shlomo Sternberg

https://textbookfull.com/product/a-mathematical-companion-to-
quantum-mechanics-1st-edition-shlomo-sternberg/

Computational Chemistry Introduction to the Theory and

Applications of Molecular and Quantum Mechanics 3rd
Edition Errol G. Lewars (Auth.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/computational-chemistry-
introduction-to-the-theory-and-applications-of-molecular-and-
quantum-mechanics-3rd-edition-errol-g-lewars-auth/
Quantum Mechanics for Beginners - with applications to
quantum communication and quantum computing 1st Edition
M. Suhail Zubairy

https://textbookfull.com/product/quantum-mechanics-for-beginners-
with-applications-to-quantum-communication-and-quantum-
computing-1st-edition-m-suhail-zubairy/

Introduction to Quantum Field Theory 1st Edition

Horatiu Nastase

https://textbookfull.com/product/introduction-to-quantum-field-
theory-1st-edition-horatiu-nastase/

Quantum Ontology: A Guide to the Metaphysics of Quantum

Mechanics 1st Edition Peter J. Lewis

https://textbookfull.com/product/quantum-ontology-a-guide-to-the-
metaphysics-of-quantum-mechanics-1st-edition-peter-j-lewis/

Foundations of Quantum Field Theory 3rd Edition Klaus

Dieter Rothe

https://textbookfull.com/product/foundations-of-quantum-field-
theory-3rd-edition-klaus-dieter-rothe/

Geometry of Quantum States an Introduction to Quantum

Entanglement Ingemar Bengtsson

https://textbookfull.com/product/geometry-of-quantum-states-an-
introduction-to-quantum-entanglement-ingemar-bengtsson/
UNITEXT 110

Valter Moretti

Spectral Theory
and Quantum
Mechanics
Mathematical Foundations
of Quantum Theories,
Symmetries and Introduction
to the Algebraic Formulation
Second Edition
UNITEXT - La Matematica per il 3+2

Volume 110

Editor-in-chief
A. Quarteroni

Series editors
L. Ambrosio
P. Biscari
C. Ciliberto
C. De Lellis
M. Ledoux
V. Panaretos
W.J. Runggaldier
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5418
Valter Moretti

Spectral Theory
and Quantum Mechanics
Mathematical Foundations of Quantum
Theories, Symmetries and Introduction
to the Algebraic Formulation

Second Edition

123
Valter Moretti
Department of Mathematics
University of Trento
Povo, Trento
Italy
Translated by: Simon G. Chiossi, Departamento de Matemática Aplicada (GMA-IME),
Universidade Federal Fluminense

ISSN 2038-5714 ISSN 2532-3318 (electronic)

UNITEXT - La Matematica per il 3+2
ISSN 2038-5722 ISSN 2038-5757 (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-319-70705-1 ISBN 978-3-319-70706-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70706-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017958726

Translated and extended version of the original Italian edition: V. Moretti, Teoria Spettrale e Meccanica
Quantistica, © Springer-Verlag Italia 2010
1st edition: © Springer-Verlag Italia 2013
2nd edition: © Springer International Publishing AG 2017
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or
for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To Bianca
Preface to the Second Edition

In this second English edition (third, if one includes the first Italian one), a large
number of typos and errors of various kinds have been amended.
I have added more than 100 pages of fresh material, both mathematical and
physical, in particular regarding the notion of superselection rules—addressed from
several different angles—the machinery of von Neumann algebras and the abstract
algebraic formulation. I have considerably expanded the lattice approach to
Quantum Mechanics in Chap. 7, which now contains precise statements leading up
to Solèr’s theorem on the characterization of quantum lattices, as well as gener-
alised versions of Gleason’s theorem. As a matter of fact, Chap. 7 and the related
Chap. 11 have been completely reorganised. I have incorporated a variety of results
on the theory of von Neumann algebras and a broader discussion on the mathe-
matical formulation of superselection rules, also in relation to the von Neumann
algebra of observables. The corresponding preparatory material has been fitted into
Chap. 3. Chapter 12 has been developed further, in order to include technical facts
concerning groups of quantum symmetries and their strongly continuous unitary
representations. I have examined in detail the relationship between Nelson domains
and Gårding domains. Each chapter has been enriched by many new exercises,
remarks, examples and references. I would like once again to thank my colleague
Simon Chiossi for revising and improving my writing.
For having pointed out typos and other errors and for useful discussions, I am
grateful to Gabriele Anzellotti, Alejandro Ascárate, Nicolò Cangiotti, Simon G.
Chiossi, Claudio Dappiaggi, Nicolò Drago, Alan Garbarz, Riccardo Ghiloni, Igor
Khavkine, Bruno Hideki F. Kimura, Sonia Mazzucchi, Simone Murro, Giuseppe
Nardelli, Marco Oppio, Alessandro Perotti and Nicola Pinamonti.

Povo, Trento, Italy Valter Moretti

September 2017

vii
Preface to the First Edition

I must have been 8 or 9 when my father, a man of letters but well-read in every discipline
and with a curious mind, told me this story: “A great scientist named Albert Einstein
discovered that any object with a mass can't travel faster than the speed of light”. To my
bewilderment I replied, boldly: “This can't be true, if I run almost at that speed and then
accelerate a little, surely I will run faster than light, right?” My father was adamant: “No,
it's impossible to do what you say, it's a known physics fact”. After a while I added: “That
bloke, Einstein, must've checked this thing many times … how do you say, he did many
experiments?” The answer I got was utterly unexpected: “Not even one I believe. He used
maths!”
What did numbers and geometrical figures have to do with the existence of an upper limit to
speed? How could one stand by such an apparently nonsensical statement as the existence
of a maximum speed, although certainly true (I trusted my father), just based on maths?
How could mathematics have such big a control on the real world? And Physics ? What on
earth was it, and what did it have to do with maths? This was one of the most beguiling and
irresistible things I had ever heard till that moment… I had to find out more about it.

This is an extended and enhanced version of an existing textbook written in Italian

(and published by Springer-Verlag). That edition and this one are based on a
common part that originated, in preliminary form, when I was a Physics under-
graduate at the University of Genova. The third-year compulsory lecture course
called Theoretical Physics was the second exam that had us pupils seriously
climbing the walls (the first being the famous Physics II, covering thermodynamics
and classical electrodynamics).
Quantum Mechanics, taught in Institutions, elicited a novel and involved way of
thinking, a true challenge for craving students: for months we hesitantly faltered on
a hazy and uncertain terrain, not understanding what was really key among the
notions we were trying—struggling, I should say—to learn, together with a com-
pletely new formalism: linear operators on Hilbert spaces. At that time, actually, we
did not realise we were using this mathematical theory, and for many mates of
mine, the matter would have been, rightly perhaps, completely futile; Dirac's bra
vectors were what they were, and that’s it! They were certainly not elements in the
topological dual of the Hilbert space. The notions of Hilbert space and dual
topological space had no right of abode in the mathematical toolbox of the majority

ix
x Preface to the First Edition

of my fellows, even if they would soon come back in through the back door, with
the course Mathematical Methods of Physics taught by Prof. G. Cassinelli.
Mathematics, and the mathematical formalisation of physics, had always been my
flagship to overcome the difficulties that studying physics presented me with, to the
point that eventually (after a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics) I officially became a
mathematician. Armed with a maths’ background—learnt in an extracurricular
course of study that I cultivated over the years, in parallel to academic physics—and
eager to broaden my knowledge, I tried to formalise every notion I met in that new
and riveting lecture course. At the same time, I was carrying along a similar project
for the mathematical formalisation of General Relativity, unaware that the work put
into Quantum Mechanics would have been incommensurably bigger.
The formulation of the spectral theorem as it is discussed in x 8, 9 is the same I
learnt when taking the Theoretical Physics exam, which for this reason was a
dialogue of the deaf. Later my interest turned to Quantum Field Theory, a subject I
still work on today, though in the slightly more general framework of QFT in
curved spacetime. Notwithstanding, my fascination with the elementary formula-
tion of Quantum Mechanics never faded over the years, and time and again chunks
were added to the opus I begun writing as a student.
Teaching this material to master’s and doctoral students in mathematics and
physics, thereby inflicting on them the result of my efforts to simplify the matter,
has proved to be crucial for improving the text. It forced me to typeset in LaTeX the
pile of loose notes and correct several sections, incorporating many people’s
remarks.
Concerning this, I would like to thank my colleagues, the friends from the
newsgroups it.scienza.fisica, it.scienza.matematica and free.it.scienza.fisica, and the
many students—some of which are now fellows of mine—who contributed to
improve the preparatory material of the treatise, whether directly or not, in the
course of time: S. Albeverio, G. Anzellotti, P. Armani, G. Bramanti, S. Bonaccorsi,
A. Cassa, B. Cocciaro, G. Collini, M. Dalla Brida, S. Doplicher, L. Di Persio,
E. Fabri, C. Fontanari, A. Franceschetti, R. Ghiloni, A. Giacomini, V. Marini,
S. Mazzucchi, E. Pagani, E. Pelizzari, G. Tessaro, M. Toller, L. Tubaro,
D. Pastorello, A. Pugliese, F. Serra Cassano, G. Ziglio and S. Zerbini. I am
indebted, for various reasons also unrelated to the book, to my late colleague
Alberto Tognoli. My greatest appreciation goes to R. Aramini, D. Cadamuro and
C. Dappiaggi, who read various versions of the manuscript and pointed out a
number of mistakes.
I am grateful to my friends and collaborators R. Brunetti, C. Dappiaggi and N.
Pinamonti for lasting technical discussions, for suggestions on many topics covered
in the book and for pointing out primary references.
At last, I would like to thank E. Gregorio for the invaluable and on-the-spot
technical help with the LaTeX package.
In the transition from the original Italian to the expanded English version, a
massive number of (uncountably many!) typos and errors of various kinds have
been corrected. I owe to E. Annigoni, M. Caffini, G. Collini, R. Ghiloni,
A. Iacopetti, M. Oppio and D. Pastorello in this respect. Fresh material was added,
Preface to the First Edition xi

both mathematical and physical, including a chapter, at the end, on the so-called
algebraic formulation.
In particular, Chap. 4 contains the proof of Mercer’s theorem for positive
Hilbert–Schmidt operators. The analysis of the first two axioms of Quantum
Mechanics in Chap. 7 has been deepened and now comprises the algebraic char-
acterisation of quantum states in terms of positive functionals with unit norm on the
C  -algebra of compact operators. General properties of C -algebras and  -morph-
isms are introduced in Chap. 8. As a consequence, the statements of the spectral
theorem and several results on functional calculus underwent a minor but necessary
reshaping in Chaps. 8 and 9. I incorporated in Chap. 10 (Chap. 9 in the first edition)
a brief discussion on abstract differential equations in Hilbert spaces. An important
example concerning Bargmann’s theorem was added in Chap. 12 (formerly
Chap. 11). In the same chapter, after introducing the Haar measure, the Peter–Weyl
theorem on unitary representations of compact groups is stated and partially proved.
This is then applied to the theory of the angular momentum. I also thoroughly
examined the superselection rule for the angular momentum. The discussion on
POVMs in Chap.13 (ex Chap. 12) is enriched with further material, and I included a
primer on the fundamental ideas of non-relativistic scattering theory. Bell’s
inequalities (Wigner’s version) are given considerably more space. At the end
of the first chapter, basic point-set topology is recalled together with abstract
measure theory. The overall effort has been to create a text as self-contained as
possible. I am aware that the material presented has clear limitations and gaps.
Ironically—my own research activity is devoted to relativistic theories—the entire
treatise unfolds at a non-relativistic level, and the quantum approach to Poincaré’s
symmetry is left behind.
I thank my colleagues F. Serra Cassano, R. Ghiloni, G. Greco, S. Mazzucchi,
A. Perotti and L. Vanzo for useful technical conversations on this second version.
For the same reason, and also for translating this elaborate opus into English,
I would like to thank my colleague S. G. Chiossi.

Trento, Italy Valter Moretti

October 2012
Contents

1 Introduction and Mathematical Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 On the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Scope and Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.2 Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.3 General Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 On Quantum Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.1 Quantum Mechanics as a Mathematical Theory . . . . . 6
1.2.2 QM in the Panorama of Contemporary Physics . . . . . 7
1.3 Backgrounds on General Topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3.1 Open/Closed Sets and Basic Point-Set Topology . . . . 11
1.3.2 Convergence and Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3.3 Compactness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.3.4 Connectedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.4 Round-Up on Measure Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.4.1 Measure Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.4.2 Positive r-Additive Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.4.3 Integration of Measurable Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.4.4 Riesz’s Theorem for Positive Borel Measures . . . . . . 28
1.4.5 Differentiating Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1.4.6 Lebesgue’s Measure on Rn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1.4.7 The Product Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
1.4.8 Complex (and Signed) Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
1.4.9 Exchanging Derivatives and Integrals . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2 Normed and Banach Spaces, Examples and Applications . ....... 39
2.1 Normed and Banach Spaces and Algebras . . . . . . . . . ....... 40
2.1.1 Normed Spaces and Essential Topological
Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 40
2.1.2 Banach Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 44
2.1.3 Example: The Banach Space CðK; Kn Þ, The
Theorems of Dini and Arzelà–Ascoli . . . . . . ....... 47

xiii
xiv Contents

2.1.4 Normed Algebras, Banach Algebras and Examples . .. 50

2.2 Operators, Spaces of Operators, Operator Norms . . . . . . . . . .. 59
2.3 The Fundamental Theorems of Banach Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . .. 66
2.3.1 The Hahn–Banach Theorem and Its Immediate
Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 67
2.3.2 The Banach–Steinhaus Theorem or Uniform
Boundedness Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 71
2.3.3 Weak Topologies.  -Weak Completeness of X 0 . . . .. 72
2.3.4 Excursus: The Theorem of Krein–Milman, Locally
Convex Metrisable Spaces and Fréchet Spaces . . . . .. 77
2.3.5 Baire’s Category Theorem and Its Consequences:
The Open Mapping Theorem and the Inverse
Operator Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
2.3.6 The Closed Graph Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
2.4 Projectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
2.5 Equivalent Norms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
2.6 The Fixed-Point Theorem and Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
2.6.1 The Fixed-Point Theorem of Banach–Caccioppoli . . . 91
2.6.2 Application of the Fixed-Point Theorem: Local
Existence and Uniqueness for Systems of
Differential Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 96
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
3 Hilbert Spaces and Bounded Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
3.1 Elementary Notions, Riesz’s Theorem and Reflexivity . . . . . . . 108
3.1.1 Inner Product Spaces and Hilbert Spaces . . . . . . . . . . 108
3.1.2 Riesz’s Theorem and Its Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . 113
3.2 Hilbert Bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
3.3 Hermitian Adjoints and Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
3.3.1 Hermitian Conjugation, or Adjunction . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

3.3.2 -Algebras, C  -Algebras, and  -Representations . . . . . 134
3.3.3 Normal, Self-Adjoint, Isometric, Unitary and
Positive Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
3.4 Orthogonal Structures and Partial Isometries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
3.4.1 Orthogonal Projectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
3.4.2 Hilbert Sum of Hilbert Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
3.4.3 Partial Isometries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
3.5 Polar Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
3.5.1 Square Roots of Bounded Positive Operators . . . . . . . 153
3.5.2 Polar Decomposition of Bounded Operators . . . . . . . . 158
3.6 Introduction to von Neumann Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
3.6.1 The Notion of Commutant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
3.6.2 Von Neumann Algebras, Also Known
as W  -Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Contents xv

3.6.3 Further Relevant Operator Topologies . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

3.6.4 Hilbert Sum of von Neumann Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . 169
3.7 The Fourier–Plancherel Transform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
4 Families of Compact Operators on Hilbert Spaces and
Fundamental Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
4.1 Compact Operators on Normed and Banach Spaces . . . . . . . . . 198
4.1.1 Compact Sets in (Infinite-Dimensional) Normed
Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
4.1.2 Compact Operators on Normed Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . 200
4.2 Compact Operators on Hilbert Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
4.2.1 General Properties and Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
4.2.2 Spectral Decomposition of Compact Operators on
Hilbert Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
4.3 Hilbert–Schmidt Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
4.3.1 Main Properties and Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
4.3.2 Integral Kernels and Mercer’s Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . 223
4.4 Trace-Class (or Nuclear) Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
4.4.1 General Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
4.4.2 The Notion of Trace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
4.5 Introduction to the Fredholm Theory of Integral Equations . . . . 236
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
5 Densely-Defined Unbounded Operators on Hilbert Spaces . . . . . . . 251
5.1 Unbounded Operators with Non-maximal Domains . . . . . . . . . . 252
5.1.1 Unbounded Operators with Non-maximal Domains
in Normed Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
5.1.2 Closed and Closable Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
5.1.3 The Case of Hilbert Spaces: The Structure of H  H
and the Operator s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
5.1.4 General Properties of the Hermitian Adjoint
Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
5.2 Hermitian, Symmetric, Self-adjoint and Essentially
Self-adjoint Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
5.3 Two Major Applications: The Position Operator and the
Momentum Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
5.3.1 The Position Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
5.3.2 The Momentum Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
5.4 Existence and Uniqueness Criteria for Self-adjoint
Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
5.4.1 The Cayley Transform and Deficiency Indices . . . . . . 270
5.4.2 Von Neumann’s Criterion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
xvi Contents

5.4.3 Nelson’s Criterion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
6 Phenomenology of Quantum Systems and Wave Mechanics:
An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
6.1 General Principles of Quantum Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
6.2 Particle Aspects of Electromagnetic Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
6.2.1 The Photoelectric Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
6.2.2 The Compton Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
6.3 An Overview of Wave Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
6.3.1 De Broglie Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
6.3.2 Schrödinger’s Wavefunction and Born’s
Probabilistic Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
6.4 Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
6.5 Compatible and Incompatible Quantities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
7 The First 4 Axioms of QM: Propositions, Quantum States
and Observables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
7.1 The Pillars of the Standard Interpretation of Quantum
Phenomenology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
7.2 Classical Systems: Elementary Propositions and States . . . . . . . 306
7.2.1 States as Probability Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
7.2.2 Propositions as Sets, States as Measures on Them . . . 309
7.2.3 Set-Theoretical Interpretation of the Logical
Connectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
7.2.4 “Infinite” Propositions and Physical Quantities . . . . . . 310
7.2.5 Basics on Lattice Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
7.2.6 The Boolean Lattice of Elementary Propositions for
Classical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
7.3 Quantum Systems: Elementary Propositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
7.3.1 Quantum Lattices and Related Structures in Hilbert
Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
7.3.2 The Non-Boolean (Non-Distributive) Lattice of
Projectors on a Hilbert Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
7.4 Propositions and States on Quantum Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
7.4.1 Axioms A1 and A2: Propositions, States of a
Quantum System and Gleason’s Theorem . . . . . . . . . 325
7.4.2 The Kochen–Specker Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
7.4.3 Pure States, Mixed States, Transition Amplitudes . . . . 335
7.4.4 Axiom A3: Post-Measurement States and
Preparation of States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
7.4.5 Quantum Logics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
7.5 Observables as Projector-Valued Measures on R . . . . . . . . . . . 348
7.5.1 Axiom A4: The Notion of Observable . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Contents xvii

7.5.2 Self-adjoint Operators Associated to Observables:

Physical Motivation and Basic Examples . . . . . . . . . . 351
7.5.3 Probability Measures Associated to Couples State/
Observable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
7.6 More Advanced, Foundational and Technical Issues . . . . . . . . . 359
7.6.1 Recovering the Hilbert Space from the Lattice: The
Theorems of Piron and Solèr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
7.6.2 The Projector Lattice of von Neumann Algebras
and the Classification of von Neumann Algebras and
Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
7.6.3 Direct Decomposition into Factors and Definite-
Type von Neumann Algebras and Factors . . . . . . . . . 370
7.6.4 Gleason’s Theorem for Lattices of von Neumann
Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
7.6.5 Algebraic Characterisation of a State as a
Noncommutative Riesz Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
7.7 Introduction to Superselection Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
7.7.1 Coherent Sectors, Admissible States and Admissible
Elementary Propositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
7.7.2 An Alternate Formulation of the Theory of
Superselection Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
8 Spectral Theory I: Generalities, Abstract C -Algebras
and Operators in BðHÞ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
8.1 Spectrum, Resolvent Set and Resolvent Operator . . . . . . . . . . . 394
8.1.1 Basic Notions in Normed Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
8.1.2 The Spectrum of Special Classes of Normal
Operators on Hilbert Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
8.1.3 Abstract C  -Algebras: Gelfand–Mazur Theorem,
Spectral Radius, Gelfand’s Formula, Gelfand–
Najmark Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
8.2 Functional Calculus: Representations of Commutative
C  -Algebras of Bounded Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
8.2.1 Abstract C  -Algebras: Functional Calculus for
Continuous Maps and Self-adjoint Elements . . . . . . . . 407
8.2.2 Key Properties of  -Homomorphisms of
C  -Algebras, Spectra and Positive Elements . . . . . . . . 411
8.2.3 Commutative Banach Algebras and the Gelfand
Transform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
8.2.4 Abstract C  -Algebras: Functional Calculus
for Continuous Maps and Normal Elements . . . . . . . . 420
8.2.5 C  -Algebras of Operators in BðHÞ: Functional
Calculus for Bounded Measurable Functions . . . . . . . 422
xviii Contents

8.3 Projector-Valued Measures (PVMs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

8.3.1 Spectral Measures, or PVMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
8.3.2 Integrating Bounded Measurable Functions in a
PVM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
8.3.3 Properties of Operators Obtained Integrating
Bounded Maps with Respect to PVMs . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
8.4 Spectral Theorem for Normal Operators in BðHÞ . . . . . . . . . . . 449
8.4.1 Spectral Decomposition of Normal Operators
in BðHÞ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
8.4.2 Spectral Representation of Normal Operators
in BðHÞ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
8.5 Fuglede’s Theorem and Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
8.5.1 Fuglede’s Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
8.5.2 Consequences to Fuglede’s Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
9 Spectral Theory II: Unbounded Operators on Hilbert Spaces . . . . 473
9.1 Spectral Theorem for Unbounded Self-adjoint Operators . . . . . . 474
9.1.1 Integrating Unbounded Functions with Respect
to Spectral Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
9.1.2 Von Neumann Algebra of a Bounded Normal
Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
9.1.3 Spectral Decomposition of Unbounded Self-adjoint
Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
9.1.4 Example of Operator with Point Spectrum: The
Hamiltonian of the Harmonic Oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . 503
9.1.5 Examples with Continuous Spectrum: The Operators
Position and Momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
9.1.6 Spectral Representation of Unbounded Self-adjoint
Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
9.1.7 Joint Spectral Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
9.2 Exponential of Unbounded Operators: Analytic Vectors . . . . . . 512
9.3 Strongly Continuous One-Parameter Unitary Groups . . . . . . . . . 516
9.3.1 Strongly Continuous One-Parameter Unitary
Groups, von Neumann’s Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
9.3.2 One-Parameter Unitary Groups Generated by
Self-adjoint Operators and Stone’s Theorem . . . . . . . . 520
9.3.3 Commuting Operators and Spectral Measures . . . . . . . 529
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
10 Spectral Theory III: Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
10.1 Abstract Differential Equations in Hilbert Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . 540
10.1.1 The Abstract Schrödinger Equation (With Source) . . . 542
10.1.2 The Abstract Klein–Gordon/d’Alembert Equation
(With Source and Dissipative Term) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
Contents xix

10.1.3 The Abstract Heat Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

10.2 Hilbert Tensor Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
10.2.1 Tensor Product of Hilbert Spaces and Spectral
Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
10.2.2 Tensor Product of Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
10.2.3 An Example: The Orbital Angular Momentum . . . . . . 571
10.3 Polar Decomposition Theorem for Unbounded Operators . . . . . 574
10.3.1 Properties of Operators A A, Square Roots of
Unbounded Positive Self-adjoint Operators . . . . . . . . 574
10.3.2 Polar Decomposition Theorem for Closed and
Densely-Defined Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
10.4 The Theorems of Kato–Rellich and Kato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
10.4.1 The Kato–Rellich Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
10.4.2 An Example: The Operator D þ V and Kato’s
Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590
11 Mathematical Formulation of Non-relativistic Quantum
Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
11.1 Round-up and Further Discussion on Axioms
A1, A2, A3, A4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
11.1.1 Axioms A1, A2, A3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
11.1.2 A4 Revisited: von Neumann Algebra of
Observables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598
11.1.3 Compatible Observables and Complete Sets of
Commuting Observables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
11.2 Superselection Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
11.2.1 Superselection Rules and von Neumann Algebra
of Observables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
11.2.2 Abelian Superselection Rules Induced by Central
Observables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
11.2.3 Non-Abelian Superselection Rules and the Gauge
Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616
11.3 Miscellanea on the Notion of Observable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
11.3.1 Mean Value and Standard Deviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
11.3.2 An Open Problem: What is the Meaning of
f ðA1 ; . . .; An Þ if A1 ; . . .; An are Not Pairwise
Compatible? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
11.3.3 The Notion of Jordan Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623
11.4 Axiom A5: Non-relativistic Elementary Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
11.4.1 The Canonical Commutation Relations (CCRs) . . . . . 626
11.4.2 Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle as a Theorem . . . . 627
11.5 Weyl’s Relations, the Theorems of Stone–von Neumann
and Mackey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
xx Contents

11.5.1 Families of Operators Acting Irreducibly and

Schur’s Lemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
11.5.2 Weyl’s Relations from the CCRs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
11.5.3 The Theorems of Stone–von Neumann and
Mackey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
11.5.4 The Weyl  -Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
11.5.5 Proof of the Theorems of Stone–von Neumann
and Mackey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
11.5.6 More on “Heisenberg’s Principle”: Weakening the
Assumptions and the Extension to Mixed States . . . . . 653
11.5.7 The Stone–von Neumann Theorem Revisited:
Weyl–Heisenberg Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655
11.5.8 Dirac’s Correspondence Principle, Weyl’s Calculus
and Deformation Quantisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661
12 Introduction to Quantum Symmetries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
12.1 Definition and Characterisation of Quantum Symmetries . . . . . . 666
12.1.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
12.1.2 Symmetries in Presence of Abelian Superselection
Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669
12.1.3 Kadison Symmetries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670
12.1.4 Wigner Symmetries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
12.1.5 The Theorems of Wigner and Kadison . . . . . . . . . . . 674
12.1.6 Dual Action and Inverse Dual Action of Symmetries
on Observables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687
12.1.7 Symmetries as Transformations of Observables:
Symmetries as Ortho-Automorphisms and Segal
Symmetries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
12.2 Introduction to Symmetry Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
12.2.1 Projective and Projective Unitary Representations . . . . 696
12.2.2 Representations of Actions on Observables: Left and
Right Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700
12.2.3 Projective Representations and Anti-unitary
Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701
12.2.4 Central Extensions and Quantum Group Associated
to a Symmetry Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702
12.2.5 Topological Symmetry Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705
12.2.6 Strongly Continuous Projective Unitary
Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711
12.2.7 A Special Case: The Topological Group R . . . . . . . . 714
12.2.8 Round-Up on Lie Groups and Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . 720
12.2.9 Continuous Unitary Finite-Dimensional
Representations of Connected Non-compact Lie
Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730
Contents xxi

12.2.10 Bargmann’s Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732

12.2.11 Theorems of Gårding, Nelson, FS3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
12.2.12 A Few Words About Representations of Abelian
Groups and the SNAG Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752
12.2.13 Continuous Unitary Representations of Compact
Hausdorff Groups: The Peter–Weyl Theorem . . . . . . . 754
12.2.14 Characters of Finite-Dimensional Group
Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768
12.3 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769
12.3.1 The Symmetry Group SOð3Þ and the Spin . . . . . . . . . 769
12.3.2 The Superselection Rule of the Angular
Momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773
12.3.3 The Galilean Group and Its Projective Unitary
Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774
12.3.4 Bargmann’s Rule of Superselection of the Mass . . . . . 782
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785
13 Selected Advanced Topics in Quantum Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793
13.1 Quantum Dynamics and Its Symmetries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
13.1.1 Axiom A6: Time Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
13.1.2 Dynamical Symmetries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
13.1.3 Schrödinger’s Equation and Stationary States . . . . . . . 800
13.1.4 The Action of the Galilean Group in Position
Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
13.1.5 Basic Notions of Scattering Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
13.1.6 The Evolution Operator in Absence of Time
Homogeneity and Dyson’s Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818
13.1.7 Anti-unitary Time Reversal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
13.2 From the Time Observable and Pauli’s Theorem to
POVMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 826
13.2.1 Pauli’s Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827
13.2.2 Generalised Observables as POVMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 828
13.3 Dynamical Symmetries and Constants of Motion . . . . . . . . . . . 831
13.3.1 Heisenberg’s Picture and Constants of Motion . . . . . . 831
13.3.2 A Short Detour on Ehrenfest’s Theorem and Related
Mathematical Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836
13.3.3 Constants of Motion Associated to Symmetry Lie
Groups and the Case of the Galilean Group . . . . . . . . 839
13.4 Compound Systems and Their Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844
13.4.1 Axiom A7: Compound Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844
13.4.2 Independent Subsystems: The Delicate Viewpoint
of von Neumann Algebra Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846
13.4.3 Entangled States and the So-Called “EPR
Paradox” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848
xxii Contents

13.4.4 Bell’s Inequalities and Their Experimental

Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 850
13.4.5 EPR Correlations Cannot Transfer Information . . . . . . 854
13.4.6 The Phenomenon of Decoherence as a Manifestation
of the Macroscopic World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857
13.4.7 Axiom A8: Compounds of Identical Systems . . . . . . . 858
13.4.8 Bosons and Fermions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860
Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 864
14 Introduction to the Algebraic Formulation of Quantum
Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867
14.1 Introduction to the Algebraic Formulation of Quantum
Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867
14.1.1 Algebraic Formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868
14.1.2 Motivations and Relevance of Lie-Jordan
Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869
14.1.3 The GNS Reconstruction Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873
14.1.4 Pure States and Irreducible Representations . . . . . . . . 880
14.1.5 Further Comments on the Algebraic Approach
and the GNS Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885
14.1.6 Hilbert-Space Formulation Versus Algebraic
Formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 886
14.1.7 Algebraic Abelian Superselection Rules . . . . . . . . . . . 889
14.1.8 Fell’s Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 894
14.1.9 Proof of the Gelfand-Najmark Theorem, Universal
Representations and Quasi-equivalent
Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 895
14.2 Example of a C -Algebra of Observables: The
Weyl C  -Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900
14.2.1 Further properties of Weyl  -Algebras WðX; rÞ . . . . . 900
14.2.2 The Weyl C  -Algebra CWðX; rÞ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 904
14.3 Introduction to Quantum Symmetries Within the Algebraic
Formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906
14.3.1 The Algebraic Formulation’s Viewpoint on
Quantum Symmetries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906
14.3.2 (Topological) Symmetry Groups in the Algebraic
Formalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 909

Appendix A: Order Relations and Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 915

Appendix B: Elements of Differential Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 919
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 929
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937
Chapter 1
Introduction and Mathematical Backgrounds

“O frati”, dissi “che per cento milia perigli siete giunti a

l’occidente, a questa tanto picciola vigilia d’i nostri sensi ch’è
del rimanente non vogliate negar l’esperienza, di retro al sol,
del mondo sanza gente”.
Dante Alighieri, the Divine Comedy, Inferno, canto XXVI1

1.1 On the Book

1.1.1 Scope and Structure

One of the aims of the present book is to explain the mathematical foundations of
Quantum Mechanics (QM), and Quantum Theories in general, in a mathematically
rigorous way. This is a treatise on Mathematics (or Mathematical Physics) rather than
a text on Quantum Mechanics. Except for a few cases, the physical phenomenology
is left in the background in order to privilege the theory’s formal and logical aspects.
At any rate, several examples of the physical formalism are presented, lest one lose
touch with the world of physics.
In alternative to, and irrespective of, the physical content, the book should be
considered as an introductory text, albeit touching upon rather advanced topics, on
functional analysis on Hilbert spaces, including a few elementary yet fundamental
results on C ∗ -algebras. Special attention is given to a series of results in spectral
theory, such as the various formulations of the spectral theorem for bounded normal
operators and not necessarily bounded, self-adjoint ones. This is, as a matter of fact,
one further scope of the text. The mathematical formulation of Quantum Theories
is “confined” to Chaps. 6, 7, 11–13 and partly Chap. 14. The remaining chapters are

1 (“Brothers” I said, “who through a hundred thousand dangers have reached the channel to the

west, to the short evening watch which your own senses still must keep, do not choose to deny
the experience of what lies past the Sun and of the world yet uninhabited.” Dante Alighieri, The
Divine Comedy, translated by J. Finn Cotter, edited by C. Franco, Forum Italicum Publishing,
New York, 2006.)

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 1

V. Moretti, Spectral Theory and Quantum Mechanics, UNITEXT - La Matematica
per il 3+2 110, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70706-8_1
2 1 Introduction and Mathematical Backgrounds

logically independent of those, although the motivations for certain mathematical

definitions are to be found in Chaps. 7, 10–14.
A third purpose is to collect in one place a number of rigorous and useful results on
the mathematical structure of QM and Quantum Theories. These are more advanced
than what is normally encountered in quantum physics’ manuals. Many of these
aspects have been known for a long time but are scattered in the specialistic literature.
We should mention Solèr’s theorem, Gleason’s theorem, the theorem of Kochen and
Specker, the theorems of Stone–von Neumann and Mackey, Stone’s theorem and von
Neumann’s theorem about one-parameter unitary groups, Kadison’s theorem, besides
the better known Wigner, Bargmann and GNS theorems; or, more abstract results in
operator theory such as Fuglede’s theorem, or the polar decomposition for closed
unbounded operators (which is relevant in the Tomita–Takesaki theory and statistical
Quantum Mechanics in relationship to the KMS condition); furthermore, self-adjoint
properties for symmetric operators, due to Nelson, that descend from the existence
of dense sets of analytical vectors, and finally, Kato’s work (but not only his) on
the essential self-adjointness of certain kinds of operators and their limits from the
bottom of the spectrum (mostly based on the Kato–Rellich theorem).
Some chapters suffice to cover a good part of the material suitable for advanced
courses on Mathematical Methods in Physics; this is common for master’s degrees in
Physics or doctoral degrees, if we assume a certain familiarity with notions, results
and elementary techniques of measure theory. The text may also be used for a higher-
level course in Mathematical Physics that includes foundational material on QM. In
the attempt to reach out to master or Ph.D. students, both in physics with an interest
in mathematical methods or in mathematics with an inclination towards physical
applications, the author has tried to prepare a self-contained text, as far as possi-
ble: hence a primer was included on general topology and abstract measure theory,
together with an appendix on differential geometry. Most chapters are accompanied
by exercises, many of which are solved explicitly.
The book could, finally, be useful to scholars to organise and present accurately
the profusion of advanced material disseminated in the literature.
Results from topology and measure theory, much needed throughout the whole
treatise, are recalled at the end of this introductory chapter. The rest of the book is
ideally divided into three parts. The first part, up to Chap. 5, regards the general the-
ory of operators on Hilbert spaces, and introduces several fairly general notions, like
Banach spaces. Core results are proved, such as the theorems of Baire, Hahn–Banach
and Banach–Steinhaus, as well as the fixed-point theorem of Banach–Caccioppoli,
the Arzelà-Ascoli theorem and Fredholm’s alternative, plus some elementary con-
sequences. This part contains a summary of basic topological notions, in the belief
that it might benefit physics’ students. The latter’s training on point-set topology is at
times disparate and often presents gaps, because this subject is, alas, usually taught
sporadically in physics’ curricula, and not learnt in an organic way like students in
mathematics do.
Part two ends with Chap. 10. Beside laying out the quantum formalism, it develops
spectral theory, in terms of projector-valued measures, up to the spectral decomposi-
tion theorems for unbounded self-adjoint operators on Hilbert spaces. This includes
1.1 On the Book 3

the features of maps of operators (functional analysis) for measurable maps that are
not necessarily bounded. General spectral aspects and the properties of their domains
are investigated. A great emphasis is placed on C ∗ -algebras and the relative functional
calculus, including an elementary study of the Gelfand transform and the commuta-
tive Gelfand–Najmark theorem. The technical results leading to the spectral theorem
are stated and proven in a completely abstract manner in Chap. 8, forgetting that the
algebras in question are actually operator algebras, and thus showing their broader
validity. In Chap. 10 spectral theory is applied to several practical and completely
abstract contexts, both quantum and not.
Chapter 6 treats, from a physical perspective, the motivation underlying the theory.
The general mathematical formulation of QM concerns Chap. 7. The mathematical
starting point is the idea, going back to von Neumann, that the propositions of physical
quantum systems are described by the lattice of orthogonal projectors on a complex
Hilbert space. Maximal sets of physically compatible propositions (in the quantum
sense) are described by distributive, orthocomplemented, bounded, σ -complete lat-
tices. From this standpoint the quantum definition of an observable in terms of a
self-adjoint operator is extremely natural, as is, on the other hand, the formulation of
the spectral decomposition theorem. Quantum states are defined as measures on the
lattice of all orthogonal projectors, which is no longer distributive (due to the pres-
ence, in the quantum world, of incompatible propositions and observables). States
are characterised as positive operators of trace class with unit trace under Gleason’s
theorem. Pure states (rays in the Hilbert space of the physical system) arise as extreme
elements of the convex body of states. Generalisations of Gleason’s statement are also
discussed in a more advanced section of Chap. 7. The same chapter also discusses
how to recover the Hilbert space starting from the lattice of elementary proposi-
tions, following the theorems of Piron and Solèr. The notion of superselection rule
is also introduced here, and the discussion is expanded in Chap. 11 in terms of direct
decomposition of von Neumann factors of observables. In that chapter the notion of
von Neumann algebra of observables is exploited to present the mathematical for-
mulation of quantum theories in more general situations, where not all self-adjoint
operators represent observables.
The third part of the book is devoted to the mathematical axioms of QM, and more
advanced topics like quantum symmetries and the algebraic formulation of quantum
theories. Quantum symmetries and symmetry groups (both according to Wigner and
to Kadison) are studied in depth. Dynamical symmetries and the quantum version of
Noether’s theorem are covered as well. The Galilean group, together with its sub-
groups and central extensions, is employed repeatedly as reference symmetry group,
to explain the theory of projective unitary representations. Bargmann’s theorem on
the existence of unitary representations of simply connected Lie groups whose Lie
algebra obeys a certain cohomology constraint is proved, and Bargmann’s rule of
superselection of the mass is discussed in detail. Then the useful theorems of Gårding
and Nelson for projective unitary representations of Lie groups of symmetries are
considered. Important topics are examined that are often neglected in manuals, like
the uniqueness of unitary representations of the canonical commutation relations
(theorems of Stone–von Neumann and Mackey), or the theoretical difficulties in
4 1 Introduction and Mathematical Backgrounds

defining time as the conjugate operator to energy (the Hamiltonian). The mathemati-
cal hurdles one must overcome in order to make the statement of Ehrenfest’s theorem
precise are briefly treated. Chapter 14 offers an introduction to the ideas and methods
of the abstract formulation of observables and algebraic states via C ∗ -algebras. Here
one finds the proof of the GNS theorem and some consequences of purely mathemat-
ical flavour, like the general theorem of Gelfand–Najmark. This closing chapter also
contains material on quantum symmetries in an algebraic setting. As an example the
Weyl C ∗ -algebra associated to a symplectic space (usually infinite-dimensional) is
presented.
The appendices at the end of the book recap facts on partially ordered sets, groups
and differential geometry.
The author has chosen not to include topics, albeit important, such as the theory
of rigged Hilbert spaces (the famous Gelfand triples) [GeVi64], and the powerful
formulation of QM based on the path integral approach [AH-KM08, Maz09]. Doing
so would have meant adding further preparatory material, in particular regarding
the theory of distributions, and extending measure theory to the infinite-dimensional
case.
There are very valuable and recent textbooks similar to this one, at least in the
mathematical approach. One of the most interesting and useful is the far-reaching
[BEH07].

1.1.2 Prerequisites

Apart from a firm background on linear algebra, plus some group theory and repre-
sentation theory, essential requisites are the basics of calculus in one and several real
variables, measure theory on σ -algebras [Coh80, Rud86] (summarised at the end of
this chapter), and a few notions on complex functions.
Imperative, on the physics’ side, is the acquaintance with undergraduate physics.
More precisely, analytical mechanics (the groundwork of Hamilton’s formulation of
dynamics) and electromagnetism (the key features of electromagnetic waves and the
crucial wavelike phenomena like interference, diffraction, scattering).
Lesser elementary, yet useful, facts will be recalled where needed (including
examples) to enable a robust understanding. One section of Chap. 12 will need ele-
mentary Lie group theory. For this we refer to the book’s epilogue: the last appendix
summarises tidbits of differential geometry rather thoroughly. Further details should
be looked up in [War75, NaSt82].

1.1.3 General Conventions

1. The symbol := means “equal, by definition, to”.

2. The inclusion symbols ⊂, ⊃ allow for equality =.
1.1 On the Book 5


3. The symbol denotes the disjoint union.
4. N is the set of natural numbers including zero, and R+ := [0, +∞).
5. Unless otherwise stated, the field of scalars of a normed, Banach or Hilbert
vector space is the field of complex numbers C, and inner product always means
Hermitian inner product.
6. The complex conjugate of a number c is denoted by c. As the same symbol is
used for the closure of a set of operators, should there be confusion we will
comment on the meaning.
7. The inner product of two vectors ψ, φ in a Hilbert space H is written as (ψ|φ) to
distinguish it from the ordered pair (ψ, φ). The product’s left entry is antilinear:
(αψ|φ) = α(ψ|φ).
If ψ, φ ∈ H, the symbols ψ(φ| ) and (φ| )ψ denote the same linear operator
H  χ  → (φ|χ )ψ.
8. Complete orthonormal systems in Hilbert spaces are called Hilbert bases. When
no confusion arises, a Hilbert basis is simply referred to as a basis.
9. The word operator tacitly implies it is linear.
10. An operator U : H → H between Hilbert spaces H and H that is isometric and
surjective is called unitary, even if elsewhere in the literature the name is reserved
for the case H = H .
11. By vector subspace we mean a subspace for the linear operations, even in pres-
ence of additional structures on the ambient space (e.g. Hilbert, Banach etc.).
12. For the Hermitian conjugation we always use the symbol ∗ . Note that Hermitian
operator, symmetric operator, and self-adjoint operator are not considered syn-
onyms.
13. When referring to maps, one-to-one, 1–1 and injective mean the same, just
like onto and surjective. Bijective means simultaneously one-to-one and onto,
and invertible is a synonym of bijective. One should beware that a one-to-one
correspondence is a bijective mapping. An isomorphism, irrespective of the
algebraic structures at stake, is a 1–1 map onto its image, hence a bijective
homomorphism.
14. Boldface typeset (within a definition or elsewhere) is typically used when defin-
ing a term for the first time.
15. Corollaries, definitions, examples, lemmas, notations, remarks, propositions and
theorems are labelled sequentially to simplify lookup.
16. At times we use the shorthand ‘iff’, instead of ‘if and only if’, to say that two
statements imply one another, i.e. they are logically equivalent.
Finally, if h denotes Planck’s constant, we adopt the notation, widely used by physi-
cists,
h
 := = 1.054571800(13) × 10−34 Js .
2π
6 1 Introduction and Mathematical Backgrounds

1.2 On Quantum Theories

1.2.1 Quantum Mechanics as a Mathematical Theory

From a mathematical point of view Quantum Mechanics represents a rare blend of

mathematical elegance and descriptive insight into the physical world. The theory
essentially makes use of techniques of functional analysis mixed with incursions and
overlaps with measure theory, probability and mathematical logic.
There are (at least) two possible ways to formulate precisely (i.e. mathemati-
cally) elementary QM. The eldest one, historically speaking, is due to von Neumann
([Neu32]) in essence, and is formulated using the language of Hilbert spaces and the
spectral theory of unbounded operators. A more recent and mature formulation was
developed by several authors in the attempt to solve quantum field theory problems in
mathematical physics. It relies on the theory of abstract algebras (∗ -algebras and C ∗ -
algebras) that are built mimicking the operator algebras defined and studied, again,
by von Neumann (nowadays known as W ∗ -algebras or von Neumann algebras), but
freed from the Hilbert-space structure (for instance, [BrRo02] is a classic on operator
algebras). The core result is the celebrated GNS theorem (after Gelfand, Najmark
and Segal) [Haa96, BrRo02], that we will prove in Chap. 14. The newer formulation
can be considered an extension of the former one, in a very precise sense that we
shall not go into here, also by virtue of the novel physical context it introduces and by
the possibility of treating physical systems with infinitely many degrees of freedom,
i.e. quantum fields. In particular, this second formulation makes precise sense of the
demand for locality and covariance of relativistic quantum field theories [Haa96],
and allows to extend quantum field theories to a curved spacetime.
The algebraic formulation of elementary QM, even though it can be achieved
and despite its utmost finesse, is not a strict necessity (see for example [Str05a]
and parts of [DA10]). Given the relatively basic nature of our book we shall treat
almost exclusively the first formulation, which displays an impressive mathematical
complexity together with a manifest formal elegance. We will introduce the algebraic
formulation in the last chapter only, and stay within the general framework rather
than consider QM as a physical object.
A crucial mathematical tool to develop a Hilbert-space formulation for QM is the
spectral theorem for self-adjoint operators (unbounded, usually) defined on dense
subspaces of a Hilbert space. This theorem, which can be extended to normal oper-
ators, was first proved by von Neumann in [Neu32] apropos the mathematical struc-
ture of QM: this fundamental work ought to be considered a XX century milestone
of mathematical physics and pure mathematics. The definition of abstract Hilbert
spaces and much of the corresponding theory, as we know it today, are also due to
von Neumann and his formalisation of QM. Von Neumann built the modern,
axiomatic notion of an abstract Hilbert space [Neu32, Sect. 1] by considering the
two approaches to QM known at that time: the one relying on Heisenberg matrices,
and the one using Schrödinger’s wavefunctions.
1.2 On Quantum Theories 7

The relationship between QM and spectral theory depends upon the following
fact. The standard way of interpreting QM dictates that physical quantities that are
measurable over quantum systems can be associated to unbounded self-adjoint oper-
ators on a suitable Hilbert space. The spectrum of each operator coincides with the
collection of values the associated physical quantity can attain. The construction of
a physical quantity from easy properties and propositions of the type “the value of
the quantity falls in the interval (a, b]”, which correspond to orthogonal projectors
in the mathematical scheme one adopts, is nothing else but an integration proce-
dure with respect to an appropriate projector-valued spectral measure. In practice,
then, the spectral theorem is just a means to construct complicated operators starting
from projectors or, conversely, decompose operators in terms of projector-valued
measures.
The contemporary formulation of spectral theory is certainly different from that
of von Neumann, although the latter already contained all basic constituents. Von
Neumann’s treatise (dating back to 1932) discloses an impressive depth still today,
especially in the most difficult parts of the physical interpretation of the QM formal-
ism. If we read that book it becomes clear that von Neumann was well aware of these
issues, as opposed to many colleagues of his. It would be interesting to juxtapose his
opus to the much more renowned book by Dirac [Dir30] on QM’s fundamentals, a
comparison that we leave to the interested reader. At any rate, the great interpretative
strength von Neumann gave to QM begins to be recognised by experimental physi-
cists as well, in particular those concerned with quantum measurements [BrKh95].
The so-called quantum logics arise from the attempt to formalise QM from the
most radical stand: endowing the same logic used to treat quantum systems with
properties different from those of ordinary logic, and modifying the semantic theory.
For example, more than two truth values are allowed, and the Boolean lattice of
propositions is replaced by a more complicated non-distributive structure. In the first
formulation of quantum logic, known as standard quantum logic and introduced by
Von Neumann and Birkhoff in 1936, the role of the Boolean algebra of propositions
is taken by an orthomodular lattice: this is modelled, as a matter of fact, on the set of
orthogonal projectors on a Hilbert space, or the collection of closed projection spaces
[Bon97], plus some composition rules. Despite its sophistication, that model is known
to contain many flaws when one tries to translate it in concrete (operational) physical
terms. Beside the various formulations of quantum logic [Bon97, DCGi02, EGL09],
there are also other foundational formulations based on alternative viewpoints (e.g.,
topos theory).

1.2.2 QM in the Panorama of Contemporary Physics

Quantum Mechanics and General and Special Relativity (GSR) represent the two
paradigms by which the physics of the XX and XXI centuries developed. QM is,
roughly speaking, the physical theory of the atomic and sub-atomic world, while GSR
is the physical theory of gravity, the macroscopic world and cosmology (as recently
8 1 Introduction and Mathematical Backgrounds

as 2016, GSR received thunderous experimental confirmation with the detection of

gravitational waves). These two paradigms coalesced, in several contexts, to give
rise to relativistic quantum theories. Relativistic Quantum Field Theory [StWi00,
Wei99], in particular, has witnessed a striking growth and a spectacular predictive and
explanatory success relative to the theory of elementary particles and fundamental
interactions. Two examples for all. In the so-called standard model of elementary
particles, that theory predicted the unification of the weak and electromagnetic forces
which was confirmed experimentally at the end of the 1980 s during a memorable
experiment at C.E.R.N., in Geneva, where the particles Z 0 and W ± , expected by
electro-weak unification, were first observed. More recently, another prediction was
confirmed: the existence of the Higgs boson, suspected since the 1960 s and eventually
detected 50 years after. On March 14, 2013, referring to the newly observed particle,
C.E.R.N. confirmed that: ‘CMS and ATLAS have compared a number of options for
the spin-parity of this particle, and these all prefer no spin and even parity. This,
coupled with the measurements of the interactions with other particles, strongly
indicates that the new particle is a Higgs boson.’
The best-ever accuracy in the measurement of a physical quantity in the whole
history of physics was predicted by quantum electrodynamics. The quantity is the
so-called gyro-magnetic ratio g of the electron, a dimensionless number. The value
expected by quantum electrodynamics for a := g/2 − 1 was

0.001159652359 ± 0.000000000282 ,

and the experimental result turned out to be

0.001159652209 ± 0.000000000031 .

Many physicists believe QM to be the fundamental theory of the universe (more than
relativistic theories), also owing to the impressive range of linear scales at which it
holds: from 1 m (Bose–Einstein condensates) to at least 10−16 m (inside nucleons, at
quark level). QM has had an enormous success, both theoretical and experimental,
in materials’ science, optics, electronics, with several key repercussions: every tech-
nological object of common use that is complex enough to contain a semiconductor
(childrens’ toys, mobile phones, remote controls…) exploits the quantum properties
of matter.
Going back to the two major approaches of the past century – QM and GSR – there
remain a number of obscure points where these paradigms seem to clash. In particular,
the so-called “quantisation of gravity” and the structure of spacetime at Planck scales
(∼10−35 m, ∼10−43 s, the length and time scales obtained from the fundamental
constants of the two theories: the speed of light, the universal constant of gravity and
Planck’s constant). The necessity of a discontinuous spacetime at ultra-microscopic
scales is also reinforced by certain mathematical (and conceptual) hurdles that the so-
called theory of quantum Renormalisation has yet to overcome, as consequence of the
infinite values arising in computing processes due to the interaction of elementary
particles. From a purely mathematical perspective the existence of infinite values
1.2 On Quantum Theories 9

is actually related to the problem, already intrinsically ambiguous, of defining the

product of two distributions: infinites are not the root of the problem, but a mere
manifestation of it.
These issues, whether unsolved or partially solved, have underpinned important
theoretical advancements of late, which in turn influenced the developments of pure
mathematics itself. Examples include (super-)String theory, the various Noncommu-
tative Geometries, first of all Alain Connes’ version, and Loop Quantum Gravity.
The difficulty in deciding which of these theories makes any physical sense and is
apt to describe the universe at very small scales is also practical: today’s technology
is not capable of preparing experiments that enable to distinguish among all avail-
able theories. However, it is relevant to note that recent experimental observations
of the so-called γ -bursts, conducted with the telescope “Fermi Gamma-ray”, have
lowered the threshold for detecting quantum-gravity phenomena (e.g. the violation
of Lorentz’s symmetry) well below Planck’s length [Abd09]. Other discrepancies
between QM and GSR, about which the debate is more relaxed today than it was
in the past, have to do with QM verses the notions of locality of relativistic nature
(Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox [Bon97]) in relationship to QM’s entanglement
phenomena. This is due in particular to Bell’s work in the late 1960s, and to the famous
experiments of Aspect. Both disproved Einstein’s expectations, and secondly they
confirmed the Copenhagen interpretation, eventually proving that nonlocality is a
characteristic of Nature, independent of whether one accepts the standard interpre-
tation of QM or not. The vast majority of physicists seems to agree that the existence
of nonlocal physical processes, as QM forecasts, does not imply any concrete viola-
tion of the core of Relativity (quantum entanglement does not involve superluminal
transmission of information, nor the violation of causality [Bon97]).
In the standard interpretation of QM that is called the Copenhagen interpretation
there are parts that remain physically and mathematically unintelligible, yet still
very interesting conceptually. In particular, and despite several appealing attempts,
it still not clear how standard mechanics may be seen as a limit subcase of QM,
nor how to demarcate (even roughly, or temporarily) the two worlds. Further, the
question remains about the physical and mathematical description of the so-called
process of quantum measurement, of which more later, which is strictly related to
the classical limit of QM. From this fact, as well, other interpretations of the QM
formalisms were born that differ deeply from the Copenhagen interpretation. Among
these more recent interpretations, once considered heresies, Bohm’s interpretation
relies on hidden variables [Bon97, Des99] and is particularly intriguing.
Doubts are sometimes raised about the formulation of QM and about it being not
truly clear, but just a list of procedures that “actually work”, whereas its true nature is
something inaccessible, sort of “noetic”. In the author’s opinion a dangerous episte-
mological mistake hides behind this point of view. The misconception is based on the
belief that “explaining” a phenomenon means reducing it to the categories of daily
life, as if everyday experience reached farther than reality itself. Quite the contrary:
those categories were built upon conventional wisdom, and hence without any alleged
metaphysical insight. There could be a deep philosophical landscape unfolding on
the other side of that simple “actually works”, and it may draw us closer to reality
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
that you do not forget what we both have to lose.” The Senator was
mindful of the sanctity of his “toga,” now.
With softly shining eyes, she thanked him. “After all,” she laughed,
her bosom heaving with the pride of victory, “you and I are the only
real parties in interest here. We will let Endicott receive all the
answers, and dear old Hugh Conyers can closely examine the whole
record of the man whom we select as working partner.
“Between Vreeland and myself, the line of communication to you
shall be guarded. As of old, Judge Endicott shall act for me—and I
will alone handle all that concerns you. Even Vreeland shall never
know—there’s my hand on it. You know that Hathorn has always
been secretly kept ‘in the dark’—against the day of his turning—like
the fabled worm. You are safe as regards him—while I—”
She sighed, and left the man who was the “missing link” in the great
scheme of active operations, wondering if she had ever really loved
Hathorn. The young Senator was unconsciously grimly jealous.
“Damned little snob!” wrathfully cried the Senator. “I hope that purse-
proud young minx of a wife will make his life a hell. I fancy that she
can be trusted to do that.” It was Alynton’s just idea of Nemesis.
The Senator had gone back to the Capital next morning with a
parting pledge to make a flying visit to the “Circassia” in two weeks
to settle the vital matter on Mrs. Willoughby’s winter hegira to New
York, and the active lawyer and the busy journalist had also fled
back to Gotham before Elaine Willoughby in the summer home had
listened to all of Harold Vreeland’s accurate relation.
“I can not afford to tell her the whole truth—as yet!” he had rightly
decided, and he wisely abstained from adding a shade of color. For
she was watching him keenly. It was the turning tide of his life.
“You are my own true knight,” she gaily said, with an assumed
lightness. “I wish you to ignore this coming social battle entirely. You
are to be strictly non-committal. I will deal with both the Hathorns.
Read that.” She handed him a paper. “In this way we will receive
tenders from perhaps fifty individuals, and even from some good
firms already established.
“I will myself, handle the secret side of the operations, and Judge
Endicott will guide you in my general business. When we have found
the right man as a partner, our whole party will examine his past
through the various mercantile agencies, surety companies,
business detectives, and then, Endicott and Conyers, too, can throw
on the searchlight.
“The new firm will go ahead—I can answer for that—and I will then
be free to openly meet Mrs. Alida Hathorn, on her chosen battle
ground of Vanity Fair.
“You are to do nothing but to simply wait at the Waldorf—and come
to me daily at the ‘Circassia.’
“As for Hathorn—a strict avoidance of him—that is my one
condition.”
“The quarrel—but—the cold oblivion of the grave! Your friendship is
dead to him!”
“And—you are never to mention their names in society. Leave them
to me.”
“I swear it—by this,” solemnly said Vreeland, as he kissed the knot of
ribbon blue. The glistening-eyed woman saw that it had lain on his
heart.
She rose and left him to study the strange public call for a
collaborator in that fierce fight for “the unearned increment” which
was to make his fortune—by a woman’s fondly trusted faith.
He read an advertisement which made a huge increase a week later
in Hiram Endicott’s daily mail. For the Herald, in special display, in its
financial page, printed the following—in an artful display:

“To Capitalists and Stock Brokers.”

“Wanted.—A gentleman of the highest integrity, who controls one of
the largest speculative stock businesses in and around New York
City, desires to meet an associate with $200,000 cash, with view of
establishing New York Stock Exchange house, or would make
partnership arrangement with a New York Stock Exchange firm who
desire to increase their business. References given and required.
Principals only. Address, for one week,
“H. E., Herald Downtown.”

Mrs. Elaine Willoughby had been a month entrenched in her

apartments at the “Circassia,” and the last summer roses had drifted
down over the silent walks of Lakemere, before the astute Vreeland
had made a surface acquaintance with Mr. Horton Wyman, whose
name later headed the sober-looking black and gold sign on a
spacious Broad Street office, reading, “Wyman & Vreeland, Bankers
and Brokers!” For the new firm had been bravely launched by
Alynton and his lovely ally.
All that Vreeland knew was that Mr. Horton Wyman was a near
relative of Senator David Alynton, and that he had just given up the
cashiership of a respectable bank to enter the New York Stock
Exchange.
The adventurer, lost in admiration of Elaine Willoughby’s executive
ability, never knew of that tête-à-tête dinner, and the long council of
the Queen of the Street with Alynton and Judge Endicott.
Out of fifty applications, Mr. Horton Wyman had been selected. As
Senator Alynton pithily said, “It’s my man and my money against
your man and your money.” The Senator himself had answered the
call for his relative.
He did know that Judge Endicott’s nephew, Noel, was the cashier of
the new firm, now in full blast, and that he alone received the orders
of the Queen of the Street from the private wires in the Hanover
Bank Building.
And he knew, too, that Mr. Frederick Hathorn’s office boasted no
longer the “inside tip” on Sugar from the woman who was carrying a
social war “into Africa” and had already staggered even the
audacious Mrs. Alida.
The checks of the new firm on the “Chemical Bank” were already
recognized as those of people “who could swing the Street,” and
some daring “deals” had opened the game.
It was Vreeland’s duty to confer once daily with his strangely-found
benefactress, and yet, he felt even now that he was but half within
the door.
But one bitter hatred followed his rising star, and he soon heard the
sneer of Frederick Hathorn: “So he lied to me, and has sneaked into
business behind a woman’s petticoats.
“Wait! Set a beggar on horseback—he will ride to the devil.” For all
that, “they never spoke as they passed by.” The war was now on in
earnest.
 CHAPTER V.

TOWARD THE ZENITH.

It had been the one haunting dream of Harold Vreeland’s fevered

young manhood to finally reach a financial position wherein “the solid
ground” would not fail beneath his feet. Before the Christmas snows
had whitened the roofs of old Trinity his star was crawling surely
toward its zenith. He was, figuratively speaking, “on velvet.”
Though he realized the cogent truth of Jimmy Potter’s maxim that
the desire of one’s heart would always finally come around to the
patient man, he was yet filled with a vague uneasiness. He was
entrenched at the Waldorf en permanence, and his personal bank
account had reached the snug sum of twenty thousand dollars.
The status which he held in the firm was that of the office partner,
and he was also authorized to draw one thousand dollars per month.
“If you need anything else, apply to me directly,” was
Mrs. Willoughby’s quiet order. Anxious not to show even the faintest
eagerness, he was passively contented, allowing his patroness to
make the game. And yet he always watched her, lynx-eyed.
“My duties,” he had simply demanded.
“You are for the present to confer alone with Mr. Wyman,” answered
Elaine. “The books and cash will be in the sole keeping of young
Noel Endicott. I may say that he alone will sign the firm’s checks and
the balance sheets will be privately rendered by him to Judge
Endicott, who represents me, as well as the power behind your new
associate, Mr. Wyman.
“You are to carry on the current business in agreement with Wyman.
Both of you will have access to all the customers’ ledgers, but the
conditions of your continuance as a broker is that only a strictly
‘commission business’ shall be carried on. And, above all things,
silence and discretion.”
“In other words,” slowly said Vreeland, “Judge Endicott is really the
responsible holder of the firm’s assets.”
“Precisely so,” smiled Elaine. “His only nephew is the cashier and
the head bookkeeper has been named by the other principal.”
“Am I to confer as to details with Judge Endicott?” was Vreeland’s
last query.
“Only with me,” she smiled. “You are to be my own knight, and I lay
this last injunction on you: Business is never to be mentioned to me
save in our daily interview of affairs. My social hours are sacred.” He
bowed and smiled.
“If anything of moment should occur,” he murmured.
“You will be held harmless,” she smiled. “Obey orders, if you break
owners.”
Perfectly conscious that Hathorn would probably spy upon him,
fearful of over-reaching himself by any rash hurry, Mr. Harold
Vreeland assiduously delved into all the daily business details and
carefully refrained from urging on the growing social intimacy with his
patroness.
Horton Wyman and Noel Endicott were both University Club men;
the last, a stalwart son of Eli, was a survival of the fittest from the
shock of football and the straining oar.
The cool head bookkeeper, Aubrey Maitland, was Wyman’s daily
luncheon companion, and young Noel Endicott always fled away at
noon hour to the Judge’s office, where the oak was sported.
It was only in their regularly exchanged uptown social courtesies that
Vreeland was enabled to study his partner.
It was, after all, of very little moment to him, for they both seemed to
be “personally conducted” by that silvered-haired old solon, Hiram
Endicott. Their way was made very smooth.
“It’s a very strange situation,” mused Vreeland. “I am a sort of
Ishmael—playing my hand against every man’s. They all think to find
me soon growing uneasy and squirming around in curiosity.
“‘Time and I against the whole world,’ said William the Silent. It’s a
good motto, and I will let them make the whole game. But, by and by,
I will get behind the scenes, and then ‘shove the clouds along.’”
With a rare self-control, he continued his judicious self-effacing
policy, and yet slyly watched the impartial welcome extended by
Elaine Willoughby to the stream of notable and desirable men who
thronged her hospitable halls.
The preliminary skirmishes of the coming battle with the Hathorns
had vastly amused him, and “all society” knew now of the impassive
prudence of the rising star. It had been Elaine Willoughby’s one fault
that her strong nature leaned little on other women. For her strong
nature buoyed her up above the petted society dolls around her.
She knew that they were barren Sahara deserts to her; she was
perfectly conscious of the absolute dearth of interest in woman
natures for each other. The few respectable “relicts” who sought her
bounty were always ranged near her, like old battleships on the
shores of Time, honorably scarred, but “out of commission” and, unfit
for action. Their mild incense of perfunctory flattery was but a
prelude to the confession of their thousand little wants. And to them,
she played the Lady Bountiful.
But Vreeland honestly, yet silently, gloried in Elaine Willoughby’s
brilliant early winter social campaign.
A lovely Napoleon, she rallied her hosts in a changed strategy of
audacious energy; she chose her own battle-grounds and vastly
outnumbered her enemy at every point of concentration. It was a war
to the knife.
Through unknown agents, the Lady of Lakemere had deftly captured
the best box in the Horse Show, and eke the same in the Canine
Exposition. She had ensnared the one most eligible Opera box upon
which Mrs. Alida Hathorn doted, and then, drawing to her splendid
halls the most desirable men to battle over, Mrs. Willoughby easily
attracted a crowd of bright-eyed beauties there ready to struggle for
their selected “eligibles,” “notables,” and desirables. There was
music and laughter, the gleam of tender eyes, the sheen of white
shoulders, the glow of ivory bosoms, and all the magnetic thrill of rich
young womanhood pervading the Circassia.
It was no secret that a house party of forty would keep a “merry
Christmas” at Lakemere, and, all in vain, did Alida Hathorn strive to
secure the most sparkling pendants of the “inner fringe” for the
widely thrown open doors of Oakwood. Her Indian summer
antagonist was an easy victor.
Some merry, audacious devil seemed to have roused himself in
Elaine Willoughby’s bosom, and she was boldly lancée now.
Knowing well what a woman’s war to the finish means, the sly Elaine
drew off with her varied and sumptuous entertainments all the
desirable men and Beauty’s beautiful Cossacks soon swooped down
upon them.
Only Vreeland could trace Senator Alynton’s influence in the vastly
enlarged glittering circle of foreign diplomats and well accredited
European visitors of rank.
The Army and Navy gallantly charged upon the battalions of Mother
Eve’s fairest forlorn hope, and humble but effective ammunition—the
canvas-back duck, the terrapin of our beloved land, choicest wines,
chilled and warmed in the right order—did all the execution possible.
The delicately ordered beaufets were a “continuous performance” to
a star engagement.
And, by a rare self-command, the warring woman with difficulty
refrained from all open attacks upon the Hathorns, but yet deftly
drawing the “financial swells” to her side by the generally accepted
conclusion that there had been something wrong with Hathorn &
Potter.
No one suspected the genial James of intermeddling. He had
reached no further point in his voyage to Samarcand, or Swat, than
gay Villefranche.
On his cozy yacht, the guileless Potter learned that Miss Dickie
Doubleday, who had returned all of his “burning letters,” but, none of
the sparkling votive diamonds, had dashingly captured and cut out a
Western mining man of untold millions who guilelessly had drifted
under her guns from a “star” of the Metropolitan opera. And, the
festive Miss Dickie was now in the seventh heaven.
The gay Eastern Elijah was overjoyed to see his rosy mantle
descend upon the Occidental Elisha, and he cautiously confided to
his deported “Gaiety Girl” the opinion that the “sun-burned buffalo of
Butte would find out a lot of things before spring.” They drank the
health of the faithless Dickie Doubleday in much champagne of rosy
tint, as the white stars shimmered around them on the blue waters of
the Mediterranean. And so, the “honors were easy” in this little game
of hearts.
In vain did many friendly financiers urge Jimmy Potter’s return by the
often cabled news that “Hathorn was making a fool of himself in Wall
Street.”
“That’s his own lookout,” calmly replied the special partner, who
rightly feared that the chasm between him and the all too amiable
Dickie Doubleday was not yet quite deep enough for safety.
“By Jove! that girl is capable of running a tandem,” he reflected, and,
he had no desire to be hitched up later, even in silken harness, with
the robust “brown buffalo of Butte.” For he had drawn a “queen” in
the last deal.
He would have quickly turned the prow of the “Aphrodite” homeward,
however, if he had known of a strong-hearted woman’s resolute
determination to run the firm of Hathorn, Wolfe & Co. ashore, and to
sink it under the guns of the unsuspected enemy which was now
“swinging the Street.”
And as artful a game as Delilah ever “put up” for Samson, was one
element of Mrs. Willoughby’s campaign, for she was now “fighting all
along the line.”
The watchful Harold Vreeland was soon made conscious that he was
an object of general interest even in the cold-hearted hurry of
Manhattan. He knew that he penetrated three varying atmospheres
in his daily life.
The society racket, the dress parade of the Waldorf and the clubs,
was one phase of his busy existence; the shaded dignities of his
Broad Street office another, and he was now assured that an
invisible halo of assiduous espionage now followed him in his down-
sittings and uprisings.
There was the maddened Hathorn, the inscrutable Elaine
Willoughby, and his cautious and silent partner, Horton Wyman.
“I’m pretty well followed up!” he smiled, with a cunning glee.
Continually on guard in society, and ever straining all his mental
powers to familiarize himself with all the details of their growing
business and the unwritten lore of the feverish Street, Vreeland was
really only uneasy at heart as to his continued probation.
For he felt now, as the holiday season approached, that he was
merely being hoodwinked by the dark-eyed benefactress, whose
fullest confidence he had not as yet gained.
“Madonna’s” social manner was frankly charming, but he had made
no progress toward any further intimacy. Some shade seemed to
hold them tenderly apart. And he racked his brains in vain.
“Ami intime de la maison!” He had only learned more of her rare
dignity in the repeated business interviews, and in the continued
tableaux of her splendid social entourage, he was no nearer to her
than others.
There was the cool Conyers, who always came and went at will; he
had also seen Senator David Alynton and the silent Wyman out
driving with his lovely patroness. There were also tête-à-tête dinners,
too, with the old Judge and that young son of Anak, Noel Endicott,
and moreover the well-bribed Justine spoke, too, of breakfasts
where only Wyman and the handsome bookkeeper, Aubrey
Maitland, were guests. All this was dangerous.
“Hang me if I can see why I am kept here,” uneasily fretted Vreeland.
“The firm would move along just as smoothly without me,” but yet in
his soul he felt that the steadfast woman still held him in reserve for
some well-matured purpose of her own.
With admirable sang froid he awaited her orders in an expectant
silence.
“She shall not weary me out; but once let the cards come my way,
then I will play the queen for all she is worth.”
He knew in the drift of customers gradually drawn in by the now
acknowledged solidity of their firm, that there were many spies and
stool-pigeons of the angry Hathorns.
He knew, too, what cold resentment burned in his old chum’s heart.
He had secretly followed (through his agents) some of these
skirmishers directly back to Hathorn, Wolfe & Co.’s office. And the
cards were played both from the top and the bottom of the pack.
Once he had himself caught Hathorn’s eyes following him with all the
wolfish glare of a murderous heart.
There were, besides, rumors of quarrels in the opposing firm and the
early retirement of the returning Potter.
And other sly traps were laid for him with silky scoundrelism. He was
well aware that the defiant Alida Hathorn had openly expressed her
utter disbelief in the existence of the late Wharton Willoughby. Even
the prehensile Mrs. Volney McMorris had waylaid him to confess that
she had never observed, in either of Mrs. Willoughby’s
establishments, any mortuary bust, portrait, or even an humble
photograph of the permanently eclipsed man who had given his
name to the Queen of the Street. These things were food for uneasy
thoughts harassing to the young schemer.
And this respectable social scavenger had faltered out some indirect
javelin thrusts evidently pointed by Hathorn’s willfully reckless wife.
There were at least two men in Elaine Willoughby’s entourage who,
for gain and a passion under the rose, might be the source of all that
quietly-sustained splendor which had so enraged the young married
heiress.
Mr. Harold Vreeland was on guard. He only fixed his fine eyes upon
Mrs. McMorris in a pained surprise when that bustling dame hinted
that he could easily drag forth the desired information.
“I have always had a penchant, my dear Madame, for minding my
own business,” was his most prudent rejoinder.
So, entrenching himself in the towers of silence, he was safe, but
Vreeland also left a bitter enemy behind, on the pleasant afternoon
when he wondered why Messrs. Merriman, Wiltshire, and
Rutherstone had bidden him “to be one of a little party of four” at the
Old York Club. It was an able effort at scientific pumping.
He had never entered that gilded fortress of the jeunesse dorée
since his last definite quarrel with Hathorn, and he knew, too, that
these three “splendid examples of the evolution of American
manhood” now made up a little coterie which was a sort of Three
Guardsmen brotherhood around Mrs. Alida Hathorn.
There were rumors of gay little Sunday afternoon frolics at the
Hathorns’, justifying Pip’s exclamation, “Such larks,” and these three
young fellows now directed the broad-gauge festivities of a home
whose master always wore a stern frown like the late lamented
“Baron Rudiger” of the German song.
It was Harold Vreeland’s chosen part to be left judiciously
uncompromised. He was still playing a waiting game. He knew that
certain very dégagée young “married women” afforded much
“congenial pabulum” for these three sleek young society sharks, and
that the careless Mrs. Alida Hathorn was fast drifting into their hands.
And so, after a long séance, wherein floods of wine drenched the
festal board, the sly adventurer found out at last the motive of his
sudden popularity.
When Rutherstone brought up the unlaid ghost of the late Wharton
Willoughby, Vreeland cynically remarked: “I naturally know nothing of
local social biography here. I am only a returned borderer, and am
only engaged in making a proper business use of my capital. I stand
calmly in the center of your New York circus and see its ‘free show’
swing around.
“My platform is that of the late Simon Cameron of blessed memory, ‘I
don’t care a damn what happens as long as it does not happen to
me.’”
“But, the lady has intimate business relations with your firm!” babbled
Merriman.
“Did Fred Hathorn tell you so?” cuttingly sneered Vreeland. “Perhaps
not, as you fellows are only chummy with his smart wife. Let her find
it out for herself, by a personal visit to the lady in question.
“You might ask Wyman—he knows all our thousand customers’
affairs. I don’t bother much with the business,” loftily remarked
Vreeland, as he hummed an old music hall refrain, “You can get onto
an omnibus, but you can’t get onto me.”
He cheerfully departed, leaving his hosts to “a night of memories and
sighs.” He was followed with curses both deep and loud.
Vreeland put all these little matters lightly away as a part of the usual
“burrowing mole” work of New York high life; but he was really
astonished, a week later, when his employer’s physician, Dr. Hugo
Alberg, haled him away to a confidential Sunday morning breakfast.
The “German specialist” was an indurated foreign egotist of thirty,
and a cunning gleam lingered behind his golden glasses.
His fresh, bewhiskered face was slightly Semitic in its cast, and his
record of prosperity was all too evident in that richness of jewelry
which has been a legacy of the Biblical times when the Egyptians
made such incautious loans of their ornaments.
Harold Vreeland had now an unwritten chapter in his life devoted
entirely to the thirsty-hearted Justine, and from that subjugated Gallic
beauty he knew of all Alberg’s crafty approaches upon the mistress
by a coarsely familiar wooing of the woman who had given herself
over, body and soul, to Vreeland’s service.
And so he marveled not that in the cozy private room at Martin’s the
Doctor’s slim, white, “sterilized” hand reached out in the direction of
a secret which Vreeland himself knew naught of.
“I’ll just let this fool talk,” mused Vreeland, as the intriguing foreigner
became both familiar and friendly. “He has his own little scheme.
Perhaps he may point me toward what no one seems to know.”
And so, in an affected bruderschaft, the would-be vampire listened
with a beating heart to Alberg’s confidences when the strong Rhine
wine had loosened the “Medical Arzt’s” slightly thickened tongue.
“We ought to understand each other, mein lieber Vreeland,” urged
the Doctor, who had now thrown the mask off. “You and I are the two
men nearest to this magnificent woman. You are her confidential
man of affairs.
“You know all—you must know all. And a woman’s best friend is
always her Doctor,” he grinned, with a suggestive pliancy.
“We are necessary to each other. You and I only want what all New
York wants—money!
“Money talks in New York. Life is a hell without money. Now, my dear
friend, we are both making money out of her easily. And to me, as
well as to you, Mrs. Willoughby’s life is of great importance.
“For my fee bill and your profits depend upon her being kept alive.”
Vreeland started, in a sudden alarm. “Speak out, man! What the
devil do you mean?” He saw a black gulf yawning before him.
“She has some concealed source of mental trouble, some eating
sorrow, some overmastering secret of her old life,” bluntly answered
Alberg. “You, as a man of the world, could easily guess that such a
woman should be married. She is rich, still very beautiful, young
enough yet—she hardly looks thirty-three—woman’s royal epoch of
mental force and bodily attractiveness. Now, she has strange periods
of a profound mental depression.
“There are dark storms of sorrow. Her heart action is somewhat
impaired, and the waves of passion beat too fiercely in her locked
breast.
“You must help me! You may, in this way, save your own future. We
must work together. Drugs will do her no good. I am at my wits’
ends!” The gloomy Doctor buried his nose again in the Rudesheimer.
“What can I do?” flatly said Vreeland. “Speak out! Don’t mince
matters.”
“Find out her past social history. Find out if she ever was really
married. Find out if some one has a hold on her. She is an unhappy
woman at heart!” cried Alberg. “It may be that damned cold-hearted
cur, Hathorn’s, desertion has cut her to the quick! Find out if she
really is a free woman!”
“And, then?” said Vreeland, a strange light coming into his eyes.
“Marry her yourself,” pleaded Alberg. “She is one woman in a million!
Take her away for a year. Lead her away from her old self. Pride
brought low may have maddened her. I think that Hathorn first
fathomed her past, and then, coldly left her for the younger and
perhaps richer woman. It may have been too heavy a blow to her
pride.”
“Is there anything in this babble about Endicott or the Senator?”
huskily whispered Vreeland, reddening with shame in spite of
himself.
The half-tipsy Doctor laughed. “The old man is only her business
Mentor—he is as passionless as a basalt block.
“The Senator is but a cold-hearted money schemer, a Yankee
coining power into hard cash. I’ve followed all these trails out.”
“And you yourself are absolutely in the dark?” persisted Vreeland.
“I’ve thought at times that old Endicott may be the trustee under
some quiet old marital separation. I’ve imagined, too, that Willoughby
mari may not be really dead; that she, in spite of herself, learned to
passionately love Hathorn, and has ardently desired him, and that he
selfishly married after she had pulled him up to fortune, and then, left
her powerless and tongue-tied, to pocket his brutal ingratitude.
“Whatever it is, we need each other, Vreeland. I will stand by you if
you stand by me. Is it a bargain?”
“I’ll see you here the same time next Sunday. Let me think this thing
over,” faltered Vreeland, beginning to see light at last on his way.
“I should have told you that she usually has these attacks after
Endicott’s occasional long private visits. It may be that the missing
husband is alive, and is bleeding her financially with extortionate
demands,” was the Doctor’s last confidence.
“I’ll be ready to talk to you next Sunday. Let me go now,” breathlessly
cried Vreeland. “In the meantime, keep a close silence. You will find
me to be the best friend you ever had in the world.”
The schemer darted away with a sudden impulse.
Ten minutes later he sat with Justine Duprez, in a hidden little nest of
her own in South Fifth Avenue. It had flashed over his mind that Mlle.
Justine’s Sunday off, just suited his purpose.
It was not the first time that he had communed with her there, in a
room once sacred to Frederick Hathorn’s private information bureau.
The startled maid had barely time to meet her generous new admirer
when he questioned her sharply upon the subject of Doctor Alberg’s
recent revelations.
And, to his annoyance, he for the first time found the Parisian
woman to be obdurate. She had been curtly abandoned by Hathorn,
who had forgotten to hand over her final payment in all the hurried
glories of the VanSittart wedding.
She alone knew that the vain fool had stupidly imagined that Elaine
Willoughby only urged on his marriage in order to be able later to
cloak an intimacy which would have later made Justine’s fortune.
And now, she would not be balked out of the harvest of fortune. For
an hour, the ardent Vreeland pleaded with the artful woman. Her
bold eyes, dulled with the bistre stains, gleamed with triumph as he
pleaded with her.
The elegant young man alternately flattered and caressed the
brown-faced intrigante, whose coarse beauty had long been the
toast of the cabaret which she yearned to possess in Paris.
Her voluptuous bosom and heavy haunches were the antipodes of
Vreeland’s beauty ideal, and yet, he knelt to flatter and to sue. For
she alone could spy upon the most sacred privacy of the woman he
had sworn to rule.
Justine eyed him keenly, and spoke at last. “Give me a thousand
dollars and promise that you will give me a free hand if you marry
Madame,” she said, as she yielded to his self-abusing pleadings.
“And only you shall know her secrets. I hate that Doctor!” she cried.
“I can find out all you want to know, but, you must do as I wish.” Her
velvet eyes gleamed in a fierce flame.
“Listen, Justine,” urged Vreeland. “To-morrow I will bring you a
thousand dollars when I come to the Circassia. Tell me now what
you can; I swear to make you rich if you will only stand by me. It is
Sunday,” he added. “No banks are open to-day. This first hundred
will not count.”
And he thrust a bill into her brown hand.
“I have watched for years to find the secret of her past life,” promptly
said the sly Justine, drawing nearer to Vreeland. “I, too, thought of
an affaire. It is not. But, a secret there is, and only one man knows—
the old lawyer. I hid myself near them on his last visit, for they talked
long, and Madame fell down fainting after he had gone away.
“Their talk was of the old times, and it is always so, when they come
to that. But, this time I listened carefully while she moaned in her
sorrow.”
“And she said?” anxiously cried Vreeland.
“‘My child! My child! Give me back my child!’ she cried. And so there
is a child, and it is not of the Senator! Voilà! They are stupidement
placide toujours! Les affaires! Only—ze monnaie! She loves him not.
And only the old man knows. You shall watch him and her.”
A sudden suspicion of a feminine double life brought a name to
Vreeland’s lips.
“Hathorn!” he said, with a meaning look at his partner in an already
vicious intrigue. For Justine Duprez knew him in all the pliant
baseness of his real nature, and they had groveled toward each
other from the very first.
The Parisian gamine laughed a bitter, hard laugh.
“I have been at Madame’s side since the first day when this egoist
Hathorn first met her. There has been no love, no intrigue, no child.
And he—the hard-hearted brute—schemed only for her money.
“No! It is beyond me. Beyond my seven years of service. I will reach
la mystère yet for you,” she smiled. “And you will perhaps find that
there was ze old divorce, ze old-time scandale. And the other man,
the husband, has perhaps taken away the child. The sorrow, yes; the
secret d’amour, no! Elle est trop bravement bête pour l’amour à la
mode.
“The journalist? Ah, no! Il n’est qu’un brave ami! Pas plus!” It was
dark before the “rising star” dared to steal away from Justine’s little
pied à terre, for too well Vreeland knew that the enraged Hathorn
was shadowing his every movement.
Justine had fled away, light-hearted, after the sealing of a pact which
was to lead her to the splendors of Dame du Comptoir of her own
cabaret. And as Vreeland strolled homeward he summed up the
situation.
“Her only friend and confidant is Endicott. No thoroughfare there.
Alberg, this German brute, knows nothing and Hathorn less than
nothing, or he would have already used it against her in this bitter
petticoat fight.
“I will hoodwink them all. My time will come when I have gained her
cherished secret. And if I do gain her secret, it will be on the market,
to the highest bidder, perhaps to the dashing Alida Hathorn, or else
be quietly nursed to later bring me in a fortune.” He was satisfied
with his day’s work. The light was dawning now.
When the adventurer reviewed the whole situation, he felt that the
mystery was as yet hidden in Elaine Willoughby’s ardent bosom.
“The day will come when she will need me, when she will tell me all,
when she is safe to live a free woman’s heart-life. I will wait on her
and give no one my confidence.”
During the long, busy week before the Christmas holidays, Vreeland
narrowly watched his strange, silent partner, Horton Wyman, to see if
he were bidden to the Lakemere house party.
“He is the only one that I have to fear,” mused Vreeland, “for, with
Senator Alynton’s backing and his daily intercourse with old Endicott,
I would be bowled out in a moment, if I made a single misstep. Can
he yearn for Elaine Willoughby’s money?”
In the daily office associations, the casual meetings at the Circassia,
in the feebly maintained exchange of personal hospitalities, Horton
Wyman had so far remained to him an unexplored country.
Cool, sturdy, with piercing black eyes, and a marvelous self-control,
with a facial mask which even a Jesuit might have envied, Horton
Wyman was seemingly devoid of any passion but money-making.
Vreeland had gained the general impression that he was “bookish,”
and the silent partner avoided all show society.
Thirty-five years sat lightly on the man, whose scanty references to
Senator Alynton’s millionaire father indicated that the “poor relation,”
had been trained up in adversity as the dead financier’s private
secretary. “He is a fellow to beware of. I’ll let him alone,” mused
Vreeland.
Harold Vreeland thanked his lucky stars when Wyman drew him into
his private den when the first sporadic Christmas trees were
beginning to creep into Gotham.
“Well, old man,” cheerfully said Wyman, “I’m off for a two weeks’ visit
to the Alyntons. Endicott will handle our Board work through his
uncle’s private broker, and Maitland and Noel will take their leave
after we return. I suppose that you will be at the Lakemere house
party.
“Of course, there’s no need of you following up things at the office.
Here’s my telegraph address, if anything turns up, and, of course,
Mrs. Willoughby will call on you if she needs anything.
“We’ve got the thing running pretty smoothly, so take your full share
of mistletoe. Noel tells me that all the prettiest girls in town will be up
there at Lakemere.” It was a welcome relief.
“I have now a free field,” jubilantly exclaimed Vreeland. “He is as
indifferent to her as if she were only a cloak model. Now, for
Lakemere!”
Vreeland never stopped in his trickery to be ashamed of his low
truckling with the French maid, whose malleable conscience was at
his disposal, in the hopes of much future backsheesh.
And so the adroit Continental Doctor had now two false friends
between him and the woman who was his “star patient” and whom