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ILYA KUPROV

Spin
From Basic Symmetries to Quantum
Optimal Control
Spin
ILYA KUPROV

Spin
From Basic Symmetries
to Quantum Optimal Control

123
ILYA KUPROV
Southampton, UK

ISBN 978-3-031-05606-2 ISBN 978-3-031-05607-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05607-9
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
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Preface

It is reasonable to assume that reality is causal, uniform, and isotropic. These

assumptions lead to the conservation of energy, linear momentum, and angular
momentum. When Lorentz invariance is also assumed, the resulting symmetry
group (translations, rotations, inversions, and now space-time boosts) yields only
two conserved quantities. One is the invariant mass; the other is a sum of angular
momentum and something else, which appears because boost generators commute
into rotation generators: special relativity has more ways of rotating things than
Newtonian physics. That extra quantity is called spin.
Common interpretations of spin are smoke and mirrors, born of futile attempts to
visualise the Lorentz group in three dimensions. I decided here to let the algebra
speak for itself, but also to ignore mathematicians, chiefly Cartan, who had gen-
erated much fog around spin physics. Illustrations are drawn from magnetic reso-
nance, where real-life applications had served to keep the formalism elegant and
clear.
This book breaks with the harmful tradition of taking analytical derivations
below matrix level—there are too many papers and books that painstakingly discuss
every eigenvector. The same applies to perturbation theories, total spin represen-
tations, propagators, … In all those cases, numerical methods in matrix notation are
ten lines of text and five lines of MATLAB. In this book, I pointedly avoid math-
ematical spaghetti: derivations only proceed to a point at which a computer can take
over.
This is a foundation, not a literature review. If something is not here, then I did
not think it fundamental enough given the time available; do let me know, it may
appear in the next edition.

Southampton, UK ILYA KUPROV

August 2022

v
Contents

1 Mathematical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Sets and Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Topological Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Linear Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4.1 Inner Product Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.2 Linear Combinations and Basis Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4.3 Operators and Superoperators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4.4 Representations of Linear Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4.5 Operator Norms and Inner Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.4.6 Representing Matrices with Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.5 Groups and Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5.1 Finite, Discrete, and Continuous Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5.2 Conjugacy Classes and Centres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.5.3 Group Actions, Orbits, and Stabilisers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.5.4 Matrix Representations of Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.5.5 Orthogonality Theorems and Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.5.6 Algebras and Lie Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.5.7 Exponential and Tangent Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.5.8 Ideals, Simple and Semisimple Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.5.9 Matrix Representations of Lie Algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.5.10 Envelopes, Complexifications, and Covers . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.5.11 Cartan Subalgebras, Roots, and Weights . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.5.12 Killing Form and Casimir Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.6 Building Blocks of Spin Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.6.1 Euclidean and Minkowski Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.6.2 Special Orthogonal Group in Three Dimensions . . . . . . . 27
1.6.3 Special Unitary Group in Two Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1.6.4 Relationship Between SU(2) and SO(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

vii
viii Contents

1.7 Linear Time-Invariant Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

1.7.1 Pulse and Frequency Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
1.7.2 Properties of the Fourier Transform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
1.7.3 Causality and Hilbert Transform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2 What Exactly Is Spin? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.1 Time Translation Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.2 Full Translation Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.3 Rotation Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.4 Lorentz Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.4.1 Boost Generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.4.2 Irreps of Lorentz Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2.4.3 Irreps of Lorentz Group with Parity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
2.4.4 Poincare Group and the Emergence of Spin . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.5 Dirac’s Equation and Electron Spin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.5.1 Dirac’s Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.5.2 Total Angular Momentum and Spin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
2.5.3 Total Angular Momentum Representation—Numerical . . . 56
2.5.4 Total Angular Momentum Representation—Analytical . . . 58
2.5.5 Benefits of the Individual Momentum Representation . . . . 59
2.6 Weakly Relativistic Limit of Dirac’s Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2.6.1 Zitterbewegung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.6.2 Negative Energy Subspace Elimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.6.3 Zeeman Interactions and Langevin Susceptibility . . . . . . . 64
2.6.4 Spin-Orbit Coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.6.5 Spinning Charge Analogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2.6.6 Spin as a Magnetic Moment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
2.6.7 Spin Hamiltonian Approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
2.6.8 Energy Derivative Formalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
2.6.9 Thermal Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3 Bestiary of Spin Hamiltonians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.1 Physical Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.1.1 Nuclear Spin and Magnetic Moment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.1.2 Nuclear Electric Quadrupole Moment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
3.1.3 Electronic Structure Derivative Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.1.4 Spin-Independent Susceptibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
3.1.5 Hyperfine Coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
3.1.6 Electron and Nuclear Shielding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.1.7 Nuclear Shielding by Susceptibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.1.8 Inter-nuclear Dipolar Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.1.9 Inter-nuclear J-coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.1.10 Bilinear Inter-electron Couplings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Contents ix

3.2 Algebraic Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

3.2.1 Interaction Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
3.2.2 Irreducible Spherical Tensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
3.2.3 Stevens Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.2.4 Hamiltonian Rotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.2.5 Rotational Invariants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
3.3 Historical Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
3.3.1 Eigenvalue Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
3.3.2 Eigenvalue Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
3.3.3 Practical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3.3.4 Visualisation of Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4 Coherent Spin Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.1 Wavefunction Formalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.1.1 Example: Spin Precession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.1.2 Example: Bloch Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.2 Density Operator Formalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
4.2.1 Liouville–Von Neumann Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.2.2 Calculation of Observables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.2.3 Spin State Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
4.2.4 Superoperators and Liouville Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.2.5 Treatment of Composite Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.2.6 Frequency-Domain Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.3 Effective Hamiltonians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.3.1 Interaction Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
4.3.2 Matrix Logarithm Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
4.3.3 Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff Formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
4.3.4 Zassenhaus Formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.3.5 Directional Taylor Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.3.6 Magnus and Fer Expansions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
4.3.7 Combinations and Corollaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
4.3.8 Average Hamiltonian Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
4.3.9 Suzuki-Trotter Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
4.4 Perturbation Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
4.4.1 Rayleigh-Schrödinger Perturbation Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
4.4.2 Van Vleck Perturbation Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
4.4.3 Dyson Perturbation Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
4.4.4 Fermi’s Golden Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
4.5 Resonance Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
4.5.1 Eigenfields Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
4.5.2 Adaptive Trisection Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
x Contents

4.6 Symmetry Factorisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

4.6.1 Symmetry-Adapted Linear Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
4.6.2 Liouville Space Symmetry Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
4.6.3 Total Spin Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
4.7 Product Operator Formalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
4.7.1 Evolution Under Zeeman Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
4.7.2 Evolution Under Spin–Spin Couplings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
4.7.3 Example: Ideal Pulse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
4.7.4 Example: Spin Echo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
4.7.5 Example: Magnetisation Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
4.8 Floquet Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
4.8.1 Single-Mode Floquet Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
4.8.2 Effective Hamiltonian in Floquet Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
4.8.3 Multi-mode Floquet Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
4.8.4 Floquet-Magnus Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
4.9 Numerical Time Propagation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
4.9.1 Product Integrals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
4.9.2 Example: Time-Domain NMR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
4.9.3 Lie-Group Methods, State-Independent Generator . . . . . . 171
4.9.4 Lie-Group Methods, State-Dependent Generator . . . . . . . 172
4.9.5 Matrix Exponential and Logarithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
4.9.6 Matrix Exponential-Times-Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
4.9.7 Bidirectional Propagation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
4.9.8 Steady States of Dissipative Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
4.9.9 Example: Steady-State DNP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
5 Other Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
5.1 Static Parameter Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
5.1.1 General Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
5.1.2 Gaussian Quadratures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
5.1.3 Gaussian Spherical Quadratures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
5.1.4 Heuristic Spherical Quadratures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
5.1.5 Direct Product Quadratures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
5.1.6 Adaptive Spherical Quadratures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
5.1.7 Example: DEER Kernel with Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
5.2 Dynamics in Classical Degrees of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
5.2.1 Spatial Dynamics Generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
5.2.2 Algebraic Structure of the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
5.2.3 Matrix Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
5.2.4 Periodic Motion, Diffusion, and Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
5.2.5 Connection to Floquet Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Contents xi

5.3 Chemical Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

5.3.1 Networks of First-Order Spin-Independent Reactions . . . . 206
5.3.2 Networks of Arbitrary Spin-Independent Reactions . . . . . 206
5.3.3 Chemical Transport of Multi-spin Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
5.3.4 Flow, Diffusion, and Noise Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
5.3.5 Spin-Selective Chemical Elimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
5.4 Spin-Rotation Coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
5.4.1 Molecules as Rigid Rotors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
5.4.2 Internal Rotations and Haupt Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
5.5 Spin-Phonon Coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
5.5.1 Harmonic Oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
5.5.2 Harmonic Crystal Lattice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
5.5.3 Spin-Displacement Coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
5.6 Coupling to Quantised Electromagnetic Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
5.6.1 LC Circuit Quantisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
5.6.2 Spin-Cavity Coupling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
6 Dissipative Spin Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
6.1 Small Quantum Bath: Adiabatic Elimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
6.2 Large Quantum Bath: Hubbard Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
6.3 Implicit Classical Bath: Redfield Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
6.3.1 Redfield’s Relaxation Superoperator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
6.3.2 Validity Range of Redfield Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
6.3.3 Spectral Density Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
6.3.4 A Simple Classical Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
6.3.5 Correlation Functions in General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
6.3.6 Rotational Diffusion Correlation Functions . . . . . . . . . . . 240
6.4 Explicit Classical Bath: Stochastic Liouville Equation . . . . . . . . . . 245
6.4.1 Derivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
6.4.2 General Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
6.4.3 Rotational Diffusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
6.4.4 Solid Limit of SLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
6.5 Generalised Cumulant Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
6.5.1 Scalar Moments and Cumulants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
6.5.2 Joint Moments and Cumulants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
6.5.3 Connection to Redfield Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
6.6 Secular and Diagonal Approximations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
6.7 Group-Theoretical Aspects of Dissipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
6.8 Finite Temperature Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
6.8.1 Equilibrium Density Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
6.8.2 Inhomogeneous Thermalisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
6.8.3 Homogeneous Thermalisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
xii Contents

6.9 Mechanisms of Spin Relaxation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

6.9.1 Empirical: Extended T1/T2 Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
6.9.2 Coupling to Stochastic External Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
6.9.3 Scalar Relaxation: Noise in the Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . 262
6.9.4 Scalar Relaxation: Noise in the Partner Spin . . . . . . . . . . 264
6.9.5 Isotropic Rotational Diffusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
6.9.6 Nuclear Relaxation by Rapidly Relaxing Electrons . . . . . . 276
6.9.7 Spin-Phonon Relaxation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
6.9.8 Notes on Gas-Phase Relaxation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
7 Incomplete Basis Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
7.1 Basis Set Indexing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
7.2 Operator Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
7.3 Basis Truncation Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
7.3.1 Correlation Order Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
7.3.2 Interaction Topology Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
7.3.3 Zero Track Elimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
7.3.4 Conservation Law Screening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
7.3.5 Generator Path Tracing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
7.3.6 Destination State Screening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
7.4 Performance Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
7.4.1 1H-1H NOESY Spectrum of Ubiquitin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
7.4.2 19F and 1H NMR of Anti-3,5-Difluoroheptane . . . . . . . . . 310
8 Optimal Control of Spin Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
8.1 Gradient Ascent Pulse Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
8.2 Derivatives of Spin Dynamics Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
8.2.1 Elementary Matrix Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
8.2.2 Eigensystem Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
8.2.3 Trajectory Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
8.2.4 Matrix Exponential Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
8.2.5 GRAPE Derivative Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
8.3 Optional Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
8.3.1 Prefixes, Suffixes, and Dead Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
8.3.2 Keyholes and Freeze Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
8.3.3 Multi-target and Ensemble Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
8.3.4 Cooperative Control and Phase Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
8.3.5 Fidelity and Penalty Functionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
8.3.6 Instrument Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
8.4 Optimisation Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
8.4.1 Gradient Descent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
8.4.2 Quasi-Newton Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
8.4.3 Newton–Raphson Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Contents xiii

8.5 Trajectory Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

8.5.1 Trajectory Analysis Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
8.5.2 Trajectory Similarity Scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
8.6 Pulse Shape Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
8.6.1 Frequency-Amplitude Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
8.6.2 Spectrograms, Scalograms, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
9 Notes on Software Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
9.1 Sparse Arrays, Polyadics, and Opia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
9.1.1 The Need to Compress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
9.1.2 Sparsity of Spin Hamiltonians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
9.1.3 Tensor Structure of Liouvillians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
9.1.4 Kron-Times-Vector Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
9.1.5 Polyadic Objects and Opia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
9.2 Parallelisation and Coprocessor Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
9.2.1 Obvious Parallelisation Modalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
9.2.2 Parallel Basis and Operator Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
9.2.3 Parallel Propagation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
9.3 Recycling and Cutting Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
9.3.1 Efficient Norm Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
9.3.2 Hash-and-Cache Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
9.3.3 Analytical Coherence Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
9.3.4 Implicit Linear Solvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Mathematical Background
1

Spin physics derives its mathematical structure from linear algebra and group
theory. This chapter gives the minimal necessary introduction to the relevant topics
(Fig. 1.1) from the user perspective: there are few derivations, few proofs, and no
unnecessary generalisations. In a few tight spots, we appeal to empirical observa-
tions and physical intuition.
The examples used in this chapter are drawn from elementary geometry, cal-
culus, and undergraduate quantum mechanics with which the reader is expected to
be familiar.

1.1 Sets and Maps

A set is a collection of objects, called elements or members of the set, defined by

listing the objects or specifying their common properties. A set U is called a subset
of another set V (denoted UV) if all members of U are also members of V, and a
proper subset of V (denoted U  V) if the two sets are not the same [1]. The
following operations will be useful later:

1. Union U [ V is a set of all elements that are members of either U, or V, or both.

2. Intersection U \ V is the set of all elements that are simultaneously members of
U and V.
3. Difference UnV is the set of all members of U that are not members of V.
4. Cartesian product U  V is the set of all ordered pairs ðu; vÞ in which u 2 U and
v 2 V.
A map M : U ! V from a set U into a set V is a relation that associates to every
member of U exactly one member of V. It is defined by a set of ordered pairs fu; vg,

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 1

I. KUPROV, Spin,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05607-9_1
2 1 Mathematical Background

g (0)
LIE GROUP LIE ALGEBRA * ALGEBRA
exp( iAt ) exp [ A, B ] f  g, A  B

  *
: METRIC SPACE
f g , f
DIFF. {U , T} LINEAR SPACE
MANIFOLD  f  g,  A  B
TOPOLOGICAL
x SPACE {...,{}} + 
T

FINITE GROUP *,-1 SET +,*,-1 FIELD

{A, B, AB, A 1 ,...} { },{ f },{A}

Fig. 1.1. A schematic map of the mathematical infrastructure of quantum theory. Postulating that
wavefunctions exist defines their set. It then becomes a space when we add the superposition
principle. The field of complex numbers is needed to make superpositions. When coefficients are
associated with probabilities, a norm appears which makes the space of wavefunctions a metric
space. Operator spaces and groups appear as sets of linear transformations of the wavefunction
space. Finite groups govern things like particle permutations, and Lie groups perform continuous
transformations such as translations, rotations, and time evolution. Tangent spaces of Lie groups
are algebras containing the operators that appear in the equations of motion and conservation laws

such that u 2 U and v 2 V, in which for every u 2 U there is exactly one ordered
pair of which u is the first element. A map is called:

1. Injective if distinct elements of U are mapped into distinct elements of V.

2. Surjective if each element of V is mapped into by at least one element of U.
3. Bijective if the map creates a one-to-one correspondence between elements of U
and V. A map that is simultaneously injective and surjective is bijective.
A map that preserves some additional features of the set (e.g. order or metric) is
called a morphism. A set is called closed under an operation if performing that
operation on a member of the set always produces a member of the same set.

1.2 Topological Spaces

Let X be a set of elements of any nature which we call points. Let T be a function
assigning to each x 2 X a collection T ð xÞ of subsets of X called neighbourhoods of
x. T is called a neighbourhood topology of X , and ðX ; T Þ is called a topological
space, if the following are true [1]:

1. For every point x 2 X , T ð xÞ contains at least one neighbourhood; each

neighbourhood in T ð xÞ contains x.
1.2 Topological Spaces 3

2. For any two neighbourhoods U ð xÞ and V ð xÞ of the same point x 2 X , there

exists a neighbourhood that is a subset of both U ð xÞ and V ð xÞ.
3. If a point y 2 X belongs to a neighbourhood U ð xÞ of some x 2 X , there exists a
neighbourhood V ð yÞ that is a subset of U ð xÞ.
4. For any two different points x; y 2 X there exist neighbourhoods U ð xÞ and V ð yÞ
with no points in common.
A topological space ðX ; T Þ is called disconnected if X can be obtained as a union
of two or more non-empty subsets that include neighbourhoods of all of their
points, but have no points in common. If that is not the case, the topological space is
called connected (Fig. 1.2).

simply
C connected path-connected
connected

D B A no no no

B yes no no
A C yes yes no
A
D yes yes yes

Fig. 1.2 A schematic illustration of the concepts of connectedness, path-connectedness, and

simple connectedness. The dotted lines indicate that the discrete points are listed as neighbours in
the neighbourhood topology

When the set X is continuous, we can define a path from a point x 2 X to a point
y 2 X as a continuous function f : ½0; 1 ! X with f ð0Þ ¼ x and f ð1Þ ¼ y.
A topological space is called path-connected if there is a path between any two of
its points, and simply connected if any path between those points can be continu-
ously transformed into any other path between the same points (Fig. 1.2).
A covering space of a topological space X is a topological space Y together with
a continuous map p : Y ! X such that for every x 2 X there exists a neighbour-
hood U ð xÞ 2 T that has multiple disjoint preimages in Y, each of which has a
one-to-one correspondence of elements with U ð xÞ. The number of preimages is
called the multiplicity of the cover. A covering space is called a universal covering
space when it is simply connected. An example is given in Fig. 1.3.
4 1 Mathematical Background

Fig. 1.3 A schematic

illustration of the concept of
multiple cover: a unit circle in
the complex plane is triply
covered by the topological
space of its cubic roots
x = e iϕ 3
y = x3

y = eiϕ

1.3 Fields

A field is a set F containing elements fa; b; c; :::g of any nature and equipped with
two operations, called addition (“+”) and multiplication (“”), that have the fol-
lowing properties [2]:

1. F is closed under addition and multiplication:

8a; b 2 F a þ b 2 F and ab2F ð1:1Þ

2. Addition and multiplication operations are associative:

8a; b; c 2 F ða þ bÞ þ c ¼ a þ ðb þ cÞ and ða  bÞ  c ¼ a  ðb  cÞ ð1:2Þ

3. Addition and multiplication operations are commutative:

8a; b 2 F aþb ¼ bþa and ab¼ba ð1:3Þ

4. F contains a unique zero element and a unique unit element:

9!0 2 F; 8a 2 F a þ 0 ¼ a
ð1:4Þ
9!1 2 F; 8a 2 F a  1 ¼ a

5. Each element in F has a unique additive inverse in F:

8a 2 F 9!ðaÞ 2 F; a þ ðaÞ ¼ 0 ð1:5Þ

and a unique multiplicative inverse in F:

8ða 6¼ 0Þ 2 F 9!a1 2 F; a  a1 ¼ 1 ð1:6Þ

1.4 Linear Spaces 5

6. Multiplication is distributive over addition:

8a; b; c 2 F a  ðb þ cÞ ¼ a  b þ a  c ð1:7Þ

The fields that make appearances in this book are C (complex numbers), and R
(real numbers). Elements of fields are called scalars. A field F is called alge-
braically closed if every polynomial of a non-zero degree with coefficients taken
from F has at least one root in F. By the fundamental theorem of algebra [332], C is
algebraically closed, but R is not. This is a physics book—hereinafter, we avoid
unnecessary generality and alternate between C and R as appropriate.

1.4 Linear Spaces

A linear space V over a field F is a set containing elements fa; b; c; :::g of any
nature and equipped with two operations, called addition (“+”) and multiplication
by a scalar (“”), such that [3]:

1. V is closed under addition:

8a; b 2 V aþb 2 V ð1:8Þ

2. V is closed under multiplication by scalars from F:

8a 2 F 8a 2 V aa 2 V ð1:9Þ

3. Addition is commutative:

8a; b 2 V aþb ¼ bþa ð1:10Þ

4. Addition is associative:

8a; b; c 2 V a þ ð b þ c Þ ¼ ð a þ bÞ þ c ð1:11Þ

5. V contains a unique zero element:

90 2 V; 8a 2 V aþ0 ¼ a ð1:12Þ

6. Each element in V has a unique additive inverse in V:

8a 2 V 9!ðaÞ 2 V; a þ ðaÞ ¼ 0 ð1:13Þ

7. Multiplication by scalars is associative:

8a; b 2 F 8a 2 V aðbaÞ ¼ ðabÞa ð1:14Þ

6 1 Mathematical Background

8. Multiplication by scalars is distributive with respect to elements of both V and F:

8a 2 F 8a; b 2 V aða þ bÞ ¼ aa þ ab
ð1:15Þ
8a; b 2 F 8a 2 V ða þ bÞa ¼ aa þ ba

A subset of V that is itself a linear space is called a subspace of V. A sum U þ W

of subspaces U and W of a space V is the set of all elements of the form u þ w,
where u 2 U and w 2 W. U þ W is also a subspace of V. This sum is called a
direct sum and denoted U  W when the two subspaces only have the zero element
in common.
A product of two spaces U and V is the set of all ordered pairs of elements in
which the first component belongs to U and the second component belongs to V:

U  V ¼ fðu; vÞju 2 U; v 2 V g ð1:16Þ

If the field F is the same for both spaces, then addition and multiplication by
scalar may be inherited by the product. The resulting set of all linear combinations
of pairs of elements is called direct product:
( )
X
U V¼ ank ðun vk Þjun 2 U; vk 2 V; ank 2 F ð1:17Þ
nk

where the operation must be distributive on either side with respect to addition:

ðu1 þ u2 Þ v ¼ u1 v þ u2 v 8u1;2 2 U 8v 2 V
ð1:18Þ
u1 ð v1 þ v2 Þ ¼ u 1 v 1 þ u1 v2 8u 2 U 8v1;2 2 V

and associative on either side with respect to multiplication by scalars:

ðauÞ v¼u ðavÞ ¼ aðu vÞ 8u 2 U 8v 2 V 8a 2 F ð1:19Þ

A direct product of two spaces is itself a space.

1.4.1 Inner Product Spaces

Here we narrow the discussion down to the field of complex numbers C; the
complex conjugation operation will be denoted by an asterisk: ða þ ibÞ ¼ a  ib
for real a and b. An inner product space is a linear space V over C equipped with a
map, called inner product
h j i : ðV  V Þ ! C ð1:20Þ

that satisfies the following properties:

1.4 Linear Spaces 7

1. Conjugate symmetry:

8a; b 2 V ha j bi ¼ hb j ai ð1:21Þ

from which it follows that ha j ai is real.

2. Linearity in the second argument:

8a; b; c 2 V 8a; b 2 C ha j ab þ bci ¼ aha j bi þ bha j ci ð1:22Þ

from which it follows that linearity in the first argument involves conjugation:

8a; b; c 2 V 8a; b 2 C haa þ bb j ci ¼ a ha j ci þ b hb j ci ð1:23Þ

3. Positive definiteness:

8a 2 V h a j ai 0 ð1:24Þ

such that hajai is only zero when a ¼ 0.

The square root of the inner product of a vector with itself is called norm:
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
kak ¼ hajai ð1:25Þ

Inner product spaces are topological (Sect. 1.2) because norm may be used to define
neighbourhoods.

1.4.2 Linear Combinations and Basis Sets

A set of elements fa1 ; :::; an g of a space V over a field F is called linearly inde-
pendent if
a1 a 1 þ    þ an an ¼ 0 ð1:26Þ

is only true when all ak 2 F are zero. The largest number of linearly independent
elements one can find in a space is called the dimension of the space [3]. The
dimension of the sum of two subspaces is equal to the sum of their dimensions
minus the dimension of their intersection. The dimension of a direct product space
is equal to the product of the dimensions of its components.
An element b 2 V is called a linear combination of elements fa1 ; :::; an g if such
scalars fa1 ; :::; an g may be found in F that

a1 a1 þ    þ an an ¼ b ð1:27Þ
8 1 Mathematical Background

The scalars fa1 ; :::; an g are called expansion coefficients of the element b in the set
fa1 ; :::; an g. Such expansions are unique if and only if fa1 ; :::; an g are linearly
independent.
A set of elements fa1 ; :::; an g of V is called a basis set of V if fa1 ; :::; an g are
linearly independent and any element of V may be expressed as their linear com-
bination. All basis sets of a given space have the same number of elements, this
number is equal to the dimension of V. Once a basis set is chosen, any element of
the space is uniquely defined by its expansion coefficients in that basis.
If an inner product (Sect. 1.4.1) is defined in V, it may be used to find the
expansion coefficients of any element in the specified basis. If b 2 V and
fa1 ; :::; an g is a basis set of V, then taking an inner product of both sides of
Eq. (1.27) with each ak yields
n
f a1 hak ja1 i þ    þ an hak jan i ¼ hak jbi ð1:28Þ
k¼1

This is a system of n equations for n unknown expansion coefficients fa1 ; :::; an g;

linear independence of fa1 ; :::; an g guarantees that it always has a unique solution.
Equation (1.28) is simplified if two further conditions are imposed on the basis
set: that all elements have a unit norm (normalisation), and that pairwise inner
products are zero (orthogonality). These conditions may be summarised as
hak jam i ¼ dkm , where dkm is the Kronecker symbol (equal to 1 when k ¼ m, and to
zero otherwise). With this condition in place, most inner products on the left side of
Eq. (1.28) disappear:
ak ¼ hak jbi ð1:29Þ

The simplicity of Eq. (1.29) makes orthonormal basis sets popular in practical
calculations. In particular, explicit expressions for norms become straightforward.
For the popular 2-norm and its scalar product:
!1=2
X X 2
hajbi ¼ an bn ; kak2 ¼ j an j ð1:30Þ
n n

More generally, the p-norm is defined as follows, with a special case at infinity:
!1=p
X p
kakp ¼ jak j ; kak1 ¼ maxfjak jg ð1:31Þ
k
k
1.4 Linear Spaces 9

The corresponding expressions for function spaces involve integrals:

0 11=2
Z1 Z1
hf jgi ¼ f ð xÞgð xÞdx; k f k2 ¼ @ jf ð xÞj dxA
2

1 1
0 11=p ð1:32Þ
Z1
k f kp ¼ @ jf ð xÞjp dxA ; k f k1 ¼ maxfjf ð xÞjg
x
1

In the case of multiple discrete and continuous arguments, all continuous arguments
are integrated over their domains, and a summation is performed over the indices of
all discrete arguments.

1.4.3 Operators and Superoperators

Let U and V be spaces over the same field F, and M be such a map from U to V that
for any a 2 F and any a; b 2 U the following is true:

M ðaaÞ ¼ aM ðaÞ; M ða þ bÞ ¼ M ðaÞ þ M ðbÞ ð1:33Þ

Then M is called a linear operator (or homomorphism), M ðaÞ is called the image of
a in V, and a is called a preimage of M ðaÞ in U. An image is always unique, but a
pre-image need not be.
A linear operator mapping a space into itself is called a linear transformation (or
endomorphism) of that space. Invertible endomorphisms are called automorphisms.
If U and V are spaces over the same field and M is a linear operator mapping U into
V in a mutually unique and reversible way, then M is called an isomorphism and
spaces U and V are called isomorphic:

UffiV ð1:34Þ

If addition and multiplication by a scalar from the same field are defined for
linear operators:

½aM ðaÞ ¼ aM ðaÞ ½M þ N ðaÞ ¼ M ðaÞ þ N ðaÞ ð1:35Þ

the set of all endomorphisms of a space V becomes a space itself. This space is
denoted EndðV Þ and called endomorphism space of V. A homomorphism space
HomðV; W Þ from a space V to a space W is defined in a similar way. Automor-
phisms cannot be made a space because the sum of two invertible maps is not
necessarily invertible.
10 1 Mathematical Background

To determine the dimension of EndðV Þ, consider the action of its elements on a

basis set fa1 ; :::; an g of V. For every element ak , its image must itself have an
expansion in the same basis set:

(
n
X
n
M ð ak Þ ¼ lkm am ð1:36Þ
m¼1
k¼1

and the knowledge of the coefficients lkm defines the map completely, because
!
X
n X
n X
n
8fa1 ; :::; an g 2 F M ak ak ¼ ak M ð ak Þ ¼ ak lkm am ð1:37Þ
k¼1 k¼1 k;m¼1

There are n2 of those independent coefficients, and all relations are linear. There-
fore, the dimension of EndðV Þ is n2. Later in this book, we will also encounter the
n4-dimensional space EndðEndðV ÞÞ—the space of linear superoperators that
transform linear operators that transform V.

1.4.4 Representations of Linear Spaces

Linear spaces of the same dimension over the same field are isomorphic. This
means that all n-dimensional linear spaces over a field F are isomorphic to Fn —we
can abstract from the specific nature of the elements of any particular linear space
and work instead with their images in Fn , whose elements are vectors. This is an
example of a representation—a map from one mathematical structure to another
that preserves some properties and relations between objects.
When vector representations of linear spaces are used, homomorphisms are
represented by matrices. If A ¼ fa1 ; :::; aN g and B ¼ fb1 ; :::; bK g are basis sets of
spaces A and B, and M : A ! B is a linear operator, then a matrix M is called a
matrix representation of M in the pair of basis sets A and B, if

8a 2 A 8b 2 B M ð aÞ ¼ b ) Ma ¼ b ð1:38Þ

where a is the column of expansion coefficients of a in the basis A, and b is the

column of expansion coefficients of b in the basis B:

X
N X
K
a¼ an an ; b¼ bk bk ð1:39Þ
n¼1 k¼1

When written out explicitly, Eq. (1.38) becomes

1.4 Linear Spaces 11

X
N
Ma ¼ b , lkn an ¼ bk ð1:40Þ
n¼1

where the scalars lkn are called matrix elements of M in the pair of basis sets A
and B. When the basis sets are orthonormal, the expression is simple:

lkn ¼ hbk jM ðan Þi ð1:41Þ

A particular representation often used in quantum mechanics connects spaces of

square-integrable complex functions of real arguments and spaces of complex
vectors [4]:
0 1
a1
X1
B a2 C
f ð xÞ ¼ an gn ð xÞ , j f i ¼ @ A; an ¼ hgn ð xÞjf ð xÞi ð1:42Þ
n¼1
..
.

where fgn ð xÞg is an orthonormal (with respect to the 2-norm) basis set and x need
not be a single argument. This representation maps linear integrodifferential oper-
ators into matrices, and therefore maps linear integrodifferential equations into
linear algebraic equations that are easier to solve.

1.4.5 Operator Norms and Inner Products

Inner products and norms on linear spaces A and B may be used to define an
induced norm and induced inner product on the corresponding homomorphism
space HomðA; BÞ:
  
kM ðaÞkB 
kM k ¼ sup a 2 A; k a k ¼
6 0 ð1:43Þ
kakA  A

The following induced norms are popular for matrix representations of

homomorphisms:
P
kMk1 ¼ max jlnk j (maximum absolute column sum)
k n
kMk2 ¼ rmax ðMÞ (maximum singular value) ð1:44Þ
P
kMk1 ¼ max jlnk j (maximum absolute row sum)
n k

In the physical sciences context, the 2-norm is usually the quantity of interest,
but singular values are computationally expensive. Other norms provide cheaper
bounds, for example:
12 1 Mathematical Background

qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
k A k2 k Ak1 k A k1 ð1:45Þ

Treating the matrices as Cartesian vectors with two indices yields the Frobenius
metric:
X   sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
X  2
hMjKiF ¼ lpq jpq ¼ Tr My K ; kMkF ¼ lpq  ð1:46Þ
pq pq

where lpq and jpq are the elements of matrices M and K, respectively [5].

1.4.6 Representing Matrices with Vectors

In the theories of spin dynamics described later in this book, it is common to see
vector representations of wavefunctions transformed by matrix representations of

linear operators: a complex vector space CN and a matrix space End CN of
operators acting on it. In spin physics, this structure is colloquially called Hilbert
space formalism. When the equations of motion are generalised to describe spin
system ensembles, we would also encounter linear maps between matrix spaces;
such maps are called superoperators and the picture is called Liouville space for-
malism [6].
Numerical implementations of Liouville space formalism are simplified when

the matrix space End CN is treated as a vector space of dimension N 2 , and the
 
superoperator space End End CN as a space of N 2  N 2 matrices:
 2    2
End CN ffi CN ; End End CN ffi End CN ð1:47Þ

In practical programming, each operator matrix M is stretched column-wise into a

vector m. A tedious index transformation demonstrates that a matrix product AMB
is then mapped into BT A m. This defines the isomorphism in Eq. (1.47)
 
because the action by a linear superoperator B 2 End End CN on any matrix

M 2 End CN can be written as a linear combination of two-sided matrix products:
X 
B ðMÞ ¼ ank Bn MBk ; Bn ; Bk 2 End CN ; ank 2 C ð1:48Þ
nk


where the set fBn g is a basis of End CN . In particular, for commutation
superoperators:

½A; M ¼ AM  MA ! 1 A  AT 1 m ð1:49Þ

where 1 is a unit matrix of the same dimension as A, and the transpose does not
become a Hermitian conjugate for complex matrices.
1.5 Groups and Algebras 13

1.5 Groups and Algebras

A set G with an associative binary product is called a semigroup if it is closed under

that product:

8g; h 2 G gh 2 G ð1:50Þ

If additionally, the following relations hold in G:

1. 9!e 2 G; 8g 2 G eg ¼ g (there exists a unique unit element)

2. 8g 2 G 9!g1 2 G; gg1 ¼ e (for every element there exists a unique
inverse)
then the set is called a group. The elements of G need not commute, but if they do,
the group is called Abelian. The number of elements in the group is called the order
of the group and denoted jGj. A subset of G which is itself a group is called a
subgroup of G. A subgroup N is called a normal subgroup of G if N is invariant
under the similarity transformation by the elements of G:

N /G , 8n 2 N 8g 2 G gng1 2 N ð1:51Þ

Groups G and H are called isomorphic if there is a one-to-one correspondence

u : G ! H such that

8g1 ; g2 2 G uðg1 g2 Þ ¼ uðg1 Þuðg2 Þ ð1:52Þ

where the multiplication g1 g2 takes place in G and the multiplication uðg1 Þuðg2 Þ
takes place in H.
The general notion of group direct product is too complicated for our purposes
here, but if G and H are normal subgroups of the same group, then their direct
product is defined as

G  H ¼ fghjg 2 G; h 2 Hg ð1:53Þ

1.5.1 Finite, Discrete, and Continuous Groups

When the elements of a group are operators acting on a normed space V, Eq. (1.43)
may be used to establish an induced norm for the elements of the group, and thus to
establish a topology. For a given element g 2 G  EndðV Þ and any positive e 2 R,
the set of all elements h 2 G such that

kg  hk\e ð1:54Þ
14 1 Mathematical Background

Table 1.1 Examples of physical systems conforming to groups of different topologies

Topology Physical symmetry groups
Finite, discrete Molecular symmetry groups in chemistry: C2v (water), D6h (benzene), Td
(methane), etc.
Infinite, discrete Crystallographic groups: Fd3m (diamond), P4mm (lead titanate), etc.
Infinite, Translation group, rotation group, time propagation group, Lorentz group,
continuous etc.

is called the e-neighbourhood of g. If every element of the group G has an e-

neighbourhood that does not contain other elements of G, the group G is called
discrete. If a group has a finite number of elements, it is called a finite group;
otherwise, it is called infinite (Table 1.1).
A group G is called a continuous or Lie group [7] if it is also a differentiable
manifold: if there exists a function gðt1 ; :::; tk Þ of k variables that is continuous
within the jti j\e cube, defines all elements of G within the e-neighbourhood of g,
and has different values for different parameters ðt1 ; :::; tk Þ. Such a function is called
a parametrisation of the group around g. The number of variables k is specific to
each group; it is called the dimension of the group, and the group itself is called
k-parametric.

1.5.2 Conjugacy Classes and Centres

Two elements a; b 2 G are called conjugate if there is an element g 2 G such that

gag1 ¼ b. The set of all elements of the form gag1 with g running over the group
is called the conjugacy class of a:

ClðaÞ ¼ gag1 jg 2 G ð1:55Þ

Each element of a group can only belong to one conjugacy class. Two conjugacy
classes of a group are either identical or disjoint—groups are partitioned into
conjugacy classes. The identity element always forms its own class, and the number
of classes in Abelian groups is equal to the order of the group. The number of
elements in each conjugacy class is a divisor of the group order (Table 1.2).

Table 1.2 Centres and conjugacy classes of common point symmetry groups of molecules
Molecular symmetry group Conjugacy classes Centre
C3v (ammonia molecule) Rotations, reflections, identity Identity operator
Td (methane molecule) 120-degree rotations, 180-Degree rotations, Identity operator
90-degree rotation + inversion, reflections
C2v (water molecule) Identity, 180-degree rotation, XZ reflection, Whole group
YZ reflection
1.5 Groups and Algebras 15

The centre Z ðGÞ of a group G is the set of elements that commute with every
element of G:

Z ðGÞ ¼ fz 2 Gj8g 2 G; zg ¼ gzg ð1:56Þ

The centre is an Abelian subgroup of G. A group with Z ðGÞ ¼ feg is called

centreless . It is important to remember that additive operations are not defined on
groups. Unless further structure is implied (for example, group action on a space)
the definition of commuting elements is strictly as in Eq. (1.56).

1.5.3 Group Actions, Orbits, and Stabilisers

If G is a group of operators acting on a set A, and the set is closed with respect to
that action, then the map G : A ! A is called a group action by G on A. A subset
BA is called invariant under the action by G if no element is taken outside of B by
the action:
8b 2 B 8g 2 G gb 2 B ð1:57Þ

and fixed under the action by G if all elements are mapped into themselves:

8b 2 B 8g 2 G gb ¼ b ð1:58Þ

The group orbit Ga of an element a 2 A is the subset of A spanned by the group

action on a:
Ga ¼ fgajg 2 Gg ð1:59Þ

The set of orbits of all elements of A is a partition of A—distinct orbits do not

intersect. If A is a space, then different orbits belong to non-intersecting subspaces
of A. A common physical example is time evolution (action by the time propa-
gation group on the initial condition) in the presence of a conservation law: tra-
jectories corresponding to different values of the conserved quantity do not
intersect.
The subset of G leaving a particular element a 2 A unchanged is a subgroup of G
called the stabiliser subgroup Ga of a:

Ga ¼ fg 2 Gjga ¼ ag ð1:60Þ

The group of rotations in R3 is a good example: the subgroup of rotations around

the Z-axis is the stabiliser subgroup of the vectors directed along that axis. If
Ga ¼ feg for all a 2 A, the group action G : A ! A is called free, an example is
the translation group in one dimension.
16 1 Mathematical Background

1.5.4 Matrix Representations of Groups

The set of all invertible N  N matrices acting on an N-dimensional vector space is

a group under matrix multiplication; this group is called the general linear group
and denoted GLðN Þ. A map P : G ! GLðN Þ is called an N-dimensional matrix
representation of G if the map preserves the group operation:

8g; h 2 G PðghÞ ¼ PðgÞPðhÞ ð1:61Þ

and the unit operator in G is mapped into the unit matrix in GLðN Þ. Matrix rep-
resentations can be:

• Faithful: when different elements of G are mapped into different elements of

GLðN Þ. An example of a faithful representation is the regular representation,
which uses the fact that G is able to act on itself by multiplication. If we define
ð nÞ ðnÞ
Dmk such that gn gm ¼ Dmk gk , then the matrix corresponding to the regular
ðnÞ
representation of gn is ½Pðgn Þmk ¼ Dmk . The dimension of the regular repre-
sentation is equal to the order of the group.
• Unfaithful: a representation in which two or more elements of G are mapped into
the same element of GLðN Þ. Properties and relations between elements may be
changed as a result. Examples of lossy representations are scalar representation
where each g 2 G is mapped into the determinant of its faithful representation,
and trivial representation, in which all elements of G are mapped into the unit
matrix.

Two representations P and Q of the same group G are called equivalent, if they have
the same dimension, and there is a similarity transformation taking one into the
other:
9S 2 GLðnÞ; 8g 2 G QðgÞ ¼ SPðgÞS1 ð1:62Þ

All representations of finite groups are equivalent to representations with unitary

matrices, those are called unitary representations. Such representations are pre-
ferred in practical work because the orthogonality theorems discussed in the next
section become particularly simple.
Let P and Q be representations of G by matrices of dimension N and K,
respectively. Because

8A; C 2 GLðN Þ 8B; D 2 GLðK Þ

ð1:63Þ
ðA  BÞðC  DÞ ¼ ðACÞ  ðBDÞ

matrices of the form PðgÞ  QðgÞ are also a representation of G, called the direct
sum of representations P and Q. A similar property exists for direct products:
1.5 Groups and Algebras 17

8A; C 2 GLðN Þ 8B; D 2 GLðK Þ

ð1:64Þ
ðA BÞðC DÞ ¼ ðACÞ ðBDÞ

and therefore matrices of the form PðgÞ QðgÞ are also a representation of G,
called the direct product of representations P and Q.
A matrix representation P of a group G is called reducible if it can be cast by a
similarity transformation into the following form:
 
P1 ðgÞ XðgÞ
PðgÞ ¼ 8g 2 G ð1:65Þ
0 P 2 ð gÞ

where P1 ðgÞ, P2 ðgÞ and XðgÞ are blocks of the matrix PðgÞ. A representation is fully
reducible if it can be transformed into a direct sum of representations of lower
dimension:
0 1
P1 ðgÞ 0 0
PðgÞ ¼ @ 0 P2 ðgÞ 0 A ¼ P1 ðgÞ  P2 ðgÞ  . . . ð1:66Þ
0 0 

If neither transformation is possible, the representation P is called irreducible. Any

representation of a finite group is either irreducible or fully reducible. The number
of unique (up to a similarity transformation) irreducible representations of a finite
group is equal to the number of conjugacy classes. For infinite groups, if a repre-
sentation is unitary and reducible, then it is fully reducible.

1.5.5 Orthogonality Theorems and Characters

Matrix elements of irreducible representations satisfy an orthogonality condition

called the great orthogonality theorem: if Pa and Pb are non-equivalent unitary
irreps of a group G, then [8]:
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi X
Na Nb
½Pa ðgÞjk ½Pb ðgÞlm ¼ dab djl dkm ð1:67Þ
jGj g2G

where jGj is the order of the group, and Na;b are the dimensions of the two irreps.
Loosely speaking, if the matrices of unitary irreps are stacked like decks of cards on
a horizontal table, different vertical columns are orthogonal within each stack, and
between the stacks corresponding to non-equivalent irreps. In the case of contin-
uous groups, the sum in Eq. (1.67) becomes an integral.
The requirement for the irreps to be non-equivalent is illustrated by matrix
traces, which are invariant under similarity transformations:

Tr SPðgÞS1 ¼ Tr S1 SPðgÞ ¼ Tr½PðgÞ ð1:68Þ

18 1 Mathematical Background

Table 1.3 Character table for the permutation group of three identical objects, for example, the
three hydrogen atoms in the ammonia molecule
C3v (chem) E C3(120°) C3(240°) r1 r2 r3
S3 (math) [1 2 3] [3 1 2] [2 3 1] [2 1 3] [1 3 2] [3 2 1]
A1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Irreps A2 1 1 1 –1 –1 –1
E 2 –1 –1 0 0 0
Classes Identity Rotations Reflections/swaps

where we have used the fact that the trace of a matrix product is invariant under
cyclic permutations of the matrices. This trace is called the character of the matrix
representation PðgÞ of an element g:

vP ðgÞ ¼ Tr½PðgÞ ð1:69Þ

As Eq. (1.68) demonstrates, equivalent representations of the same group element

have equal characters.
An example of the character table of a group, listing all non-equivalent irreps, is
given in Table 1.3 for the S3 permutation group, known to chemists as C3v—the
symmetry group of the ammonia molecule.
It also follows from Eq. (1.68) and the definition of conjugacy class (Sect. 1.5.2)
that representations of all elements in the same class have the same character—this
is visible in Table 1.3. After computing the traces of the matrices appearing in the
great orthogonality theorem:
!
X pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Na Nb X
ffi X
½Pa ðgÞjk ½Pb ðgÞlm djk dlm ¼ dab djl dkm djk dlm ð1:70Þ
jklm
jGj g2G jklm

and simplifying, we conclude that character strings of non-equivalent irreps are

orthogonal as vectors:

1 X
v ðgÞvPb ðgÞ ¼ dab ð1:71Þ
jGj g2G Pa

This is the little orthogonality theorem, it is also evident in Table 1.3.

1.5.6 Algebras and Lie Algebras

A space a over a field F becomes an algebra when a binary product ½; :ða  aÞ !
a is defined such that
1.5 Groups and Algebras 19

1. 8A; B 2 a ½A; B 2 a (the space is closed under the product)

2. 8A; B; C 2 a ½A þ B; C ¼ ½A; C þ ½B; C (the product is left-distributive)
3. 8A; B; C 2 a ½A; B þ C ¼ ½A; B þ ½A; C (the product is right-distributive)
4. 8A; B 2 a 8a; b 2 F ½aA; bB ¼ ab½A; B (multiplication by scalars is
associative)
where the notation for the product (square bracket) has been adapted to our future
use of this formalism for matrices. A subspace of a that is itself an algebra is called
a subalgebra of a.
As we saw in Sect. 1.4, in a given basis set fVk g of a, any element has a unique
expansion:
X X
A¼ an Vn ; B¼ bk Vk ð1:72Þ
n k

In particular, this must hold for products of basis elements; this implies that
products of basis elements are themselves linear combinations of basis elements:
X
½Vn ; Vk  ¼ cm
nk Vm ð1:73Þ
m

where cmnk are called structure coefficients or structure constants. They are useful
because they connect the expansion coefficients of operands to the expansion
coefficients of the product:
X X
½A; B ¼ an bk ½Vn ; Vk  ¼ an b k c m
nk Vm
nk nkm
X X ð1:74Þ
¼ cm Vm ; cm ¼ an cm
nk bk
m nk

Algebras occur whenever linear combinations and products are simultaneously

defined. When the properties of the algebra are narrowed down to only allow a
specific kind of binary product, called Lie bracket (not necessarily a commutator),
with the following properties:

5. 8A; B 2 a ½A; B ¼ ½B; A (product is antisymmetric)

6. 8A; B; C 2 a ½A; ½B; C þ ½B; ½C; A þ ½C; ½A; B ¼ 0 (Jacobi identity holds)
the algebra is called a Lie algebra, as distinct from an associative algebra, where
instead:
8A; B; C 2 a ½A; ½B; C ¼ ½½A; B; C ð1:75Þ

An associative algebra with a multiplicative unit element is called unital.

20 1 Mathematical Background

1.5.7 Exponential and Tangent Maps

For any Lie algebra a, the set of exponentials of its elements is a group because:

1. The product of two exponentials of elements of a is an exponential of another

element of a (Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula [9–11], presented here with-
out proof):
 
1
8A; B 2 a expðAÞ expðBÞ ¼ exp A þ B þ ½A; B þ    ð1:76Þ
2

where the exponential on the right contains a linear combination of nested

commutators of A and B, which must be an element of a. Although the operator
exponential itself is sometimes defined using the associative product:

X
1
An
expðAÞ ¼ ð1:77Þ
n¼1
n!

only Lie brackets actually occur in Eq (1.76) which we here require.

2. The zero element of a is exponentiated into the unit element of the group:

8A 2 a expð0Þ expðAÞ ¼ expðAÞ expð0Þ ¼ expðAÞ ð1:78Þ

3. The exponential of each element of a has a multiplicative inverse:

8A 2 a 9!ðAÞ 2 a; expðAÞ expðAÞ ¼ expð0Þ ð1:79Þ

This relationship between the Lie algebra and the corresponding Lie group is called
the exponential map. The elements of the basis set of a are called generators of that
group; the number of linearly independent generators is called the dimension of the
Lie algebra [7]. If the algebra a is n-dimensional, the resulting group expðaÞ is n-
parametric.
Given a basis set fVk g of an n-dimensional algebra a and parameters a 2 Fn , the
group element generated by the exponential map is

GðaÞ ¼ exp½a1 V1 þ a2 V2 þ    ð1:80Þ

When only GðaÞ is available, the generators fVk g may be recovered by taking
partial derivatives at the unit element of the group:
 
@G  exp½ak Vk   exp½0 1 þ ak Vk þ O a2k  1
¼ lim ¼ lim ¼ Vk ð1:81Þ
@ak a¼0 ak !0 ak ak !0 ak
1.5 Groups and Algebras 21

This is called tangent map because the set of such derivatives spans the tangent
hyperplane to GðaÞ at a ¼ 0. It also spans the parent space of the original Lie
algebra—we can therefore conclude that the Lie algebra generating a Lie group is
its tangent space at identity [7].

1.5.8 Ideals, Simple and Semisimple Algebras

An ideal of a Lie algebra a is a subalgebra h  a such that ½a; h  h. It follows that

the orthogonal complement h? of h in a is also an ideal, and therefore a ¼ h  h? ,
where the two components of the direct sum are sub-algebras of a. This may be
repeated until there are no non-trivial ideals left, with the conclusion that the
algebra splits into a direct sum of its non-trivial ideals. The algebras that cannot be
split further are called simple. The algebras that are direct sums of simple algebras
are called semisimple. These designations are inherited by the corresponding Lie
groups: a simple group is the group whose only normal subgroups (those invariant
under conjugation by members of the group) are the trivial subgroup and the group
itself [12].

1.5.9 Matrix Representations of Lie Algebras

Let a be a Lie algebra and V a vector space over the same field. A matrix repre-
sentation P of a on V is a linear map P : a ! EndðV Þ, such that

8A; B 2 a Pð½A; BÞ ¼ ½PðAÞ; PðBÞ ð1:82Þ

Faithful and irreducible representations of Lie algebras are defined in the same way
as they are for groups (Sect. 1.5.4): a faithful representation maps different elements
of a into different elements of EndðV Þ, and an irreducible representation is one that
cannot be brought into a block-diagonal form by a similarity transformation.
A particular choice of V is the parent space of the Lie algebra itself, on which it
acts by Lie bracket:
8A;B 2 a adA ðBÞ ¼ ½A; B ð1:83Þ

This action is called adjoint endomorphism. It follows from the definition of the Lie
bracket that the map A ! adA is linear, and that the set of elements fadA jA 2 ag is
a Lie algebra itself:
8A;B; C 2 a ½adA ; adB ðCÞ ¼ ad½A;B ðCÞ ð1:84Þ

This construction may be used to build a faithful matrix representation of a, called

adjoint representation. In a given basis set fVk g, the adjoint action by one basis
element on another is determined by the structure coefficients in Eq. (1.73), and
thus the matrix elements are
22 1 Mathematical Background

X
adVn ðVk Þ ¼ cm
nk Vm ) ½PðadVn Þmk ¼ cm
nk ð1:85Þ
m

For simple Lie algebras, the adjoint representation is irreducible because subrep-
resentations of ada would correspond to the ideals of a, and simple algebras have no
non-trivial ideals [12].

1.5.10 Envelopes, Complexifications, and Covers

Although it is possible to formulate some physical theories purely in terms of Lie

brackets, ignoring the associative product on the algebras of physical operators is
unreasonable. Lie algebras in physics, therefore, come embedded into associative
algebras, and their bracket is the commutator:

½A; B ¼ AB  BA ð1:86Þ

It is also desirable to have Hermitian representations—observable operators in

quantum mechanics are Hermitian. However, a commutator of two Hermitian
operators is not, and so physicists define their Lie algebras as closed with respect to
i½A; B product, which is Hermitian for Hermitian operands. These decorations lead
to the following definitions:

1. A universal enveloping algebra of a Lie algebra g over a field F is a pair

fUðgÞ; Mg, such that

(a) UðgÞ is a unital associative algebra over F;

(b) the map M : g ! UðgÞ is linear and preserves the Lie bracket relation

½M ðAÞ; M ðBÞ ¼ M ð½A; BÞ; ð1:87Þ

(c) for any associative unital algebra a over F, and for any linear map
N : g ! a that preserves the Lie bracket, there exists a unique homomor-
phism K : UðgÞ ! a such that N is a superposition of M and K.

The general process of obtaining UðgÞ from g is complicated, but a shortcut

exists in physics where faithful matrix representations are available: PðUðgÞÞ is
obtained by adding the associative matrix product to the list of operations
defined on the matrix space of PðgÞ. For any Lie algebra over any field, the
universal enveloping algebra is unique up to an isomorphism.
2. The complexification gC of a Lie algebra g over R is the algebra that is obtained
by extending the field from R to C. This is useful because the representation
map is complex-linear:
1.5 Groups and Algebras 23

8A; B 2 g PðA  iBÞ ¼ PðAÞ  iPðBÞ ð1:88Þ

and PðgC Þ is irreducible if and only if PðgÞ is irreducible. Thus, PðgÞ and PðgC Þ
have the same invariant subspaces, and finding them for PðgC Þ is sometimes
easier. The corresponding group expðgC Þ is called the complexification of the
group expðgÞ
For simply connected matrix Lie groups, a homomorphism u of Lie algebras
uniquely corresponds to a homomorphism U of the corresponding groups:

exp½uðAÞ ¼ U½expðAÞ ð1:89Þ

If a Lie group is not simply connected, it may be useful to find another group with
an isomorphic algebra that is simply connected. Formally, a universal cover of a
matrix Lie group G is a simply connected matrix Lie group H and a homomorphism
(called covering map) U : H ! G, such that the associated Lie algebra homo-
morphism u : h ! g is an isomorphism. It follows that, if two algebras of simply
connected groups are isomorphic, then their groups also are [12].
Envelopes and complexifications are useful because they are supersets of the Lie
algebra: their representations are, therefore, also representations of the algebra.
Because these supersets are larger, their irreps may turn out to be reducible for the
original algebra. Although a cover is a different Lie group, the isomorphism of
algebras requires the irreps of the original algebra to be irreps of the covering
algebra. However, the cover algebra may also have irreps of its own that are not
irreps of the original algebra.

1.5.11 Cartan Subalgebras, Roots, and Weights

If g is a semisimple Lie algebra and h  g is its largest Abelian subalgebra, then h is

called a Cartan subalgebra of g, and its dimension is called Cartan rank of g. An
equivalent definition of the Cartan rank is the number of simple components in the
semi-simple algebra [13].
In a given matrix representation P of g, all matrices in PðhÞ commute, and
therefore can be simultaneously diagonalised. Each simultaneous eigenvector vn
will be associated with multiple eigenvalues, one for each matrix in PðhÞ. Those
eigenvalues make a vector of their own, called weight vector—the notion of
eigensystem is generalised:

f PðH1 Þ PðH2 Þ    gvn ¼ f l1n l2n    gvn ð1:90Þ

where fHk g is a basis set of h, and f l1n l2n    g is the corresponding weight
vector. Different irreducible representations of a given simple Lie algebra have
different highest weights.
24 1 Mathematical Background

A similar structure may be built for matrices that simultaneously commute with
all elements of PðhÞ:

½f PðH1 Þ PðH2 Þ    g; An  ¼ f a1n a2n    gAn ð1:91Þ

where f a1n a2n    g is called root vector. Elaborate analytical procedures exist
for constructing and classifying representations of Lie algebras and groups using
roots and weights. Those procedures are deliberately omitted from this book which
advocates numerical methods (Sect. 2.5.3) instead.

1.5.12 Killing Form and Casimir Elements

A simple Lie algebra g has trivial ideals—none of its generators commute with all
other generators. However, its universal enveloping algebra UðgÞ turns out to
contain an element that does. Finding it is instructive. If an element C 2 UðgÞ
commutes with g, it must be in the kernel of the adjoint map:

8A 2 g adA ðCÞ ¼ 0 ð1:92Þ

At the same time, UðgÞ is spanned by polynomials of the generators of g, and we

have already seen a polynomial function that similarity transformations leave
invariant: the inner product (Sect. 1.4). Our next step is therefore to define an inner
product on g.
For matrices, a natural choice is the Frobenius product (Sect. 1.4.5) in the most
straightforward faithful matrix representation we can construct—the adjoint rep-
resentation (Sect. 1.5.9):
K ðX; YÞ ¼ Tr½adX adY  ð1:93Þ

This inner product is called the Killing form (after Wilhelm Killing [14]) on g. It is
bilinear, symmetric, and invariant under the adjoint action by g:

8X; Y; Z 2 g K ðX; YÞ ¼ K ðY; XÞ

ð1:94Þ
K ðadZ ðXÞ; adZ ðYÞÞ ¼ K ðX; YÞ

When the elements of g are represented by coefficient vectors in some basis fVk g,
the Killing form becomes a metric tensor on the corresponding space. Using
Eq. (1.85):
X
jab ¼ K ðVa ; Vb Þ ¼ Tr½adðVa ÞadðVb Þ ¼ ckam cm
bk ð1:95Þ
mk

and it follows that the corresponding norm is conserved. This norm yields the
Casimir element [15]:
1.6 Building Blocks of Spin Physics 25

X
C¼ Va jab Vb ð1:96Þ
ab

that commutes with the whole of g. In the context of physics, it corresponds to a

quantity that remains unchanged under the group—in other words, to a conserva-
tion law [261]. Semi-simple Lie groups have multiple Casimir elements, one for
each simple component.

1.6 Building Blocks of Spin Physics

This section introduces physically motivated instances of the structures described

above. Although they could have been presented in an abstract way, we are
compelled to be specific because mathematics and physics communities use a
different notation for commutators and the exponential map (Table 1.4).
Physicists’ commutator is convenient because A, B, and C can be simultane-
ously Hermitian (equal to their own conjugate-transpose)—in quantum mechanics,
operators corresponding to real-valued physical observables are Hermitian. For
example, for orbital angular momentum operators:

^X ; L
L ^ Y ¼ iL
^Z rep:
! ½LX ; LY  ¼ iLZ ð1:97Þ

where a convention in physics is that hats indicate multiplicative or integrodiffer-

ential operators and bold fonts indicate a matrix representation.
Physicists’ exponential map comes from the general solution of Schrödinger’s
equation:

@
wðtÞ ¼ iH^ ðtÞwðtÞ ) ^ ðtÞdt wðtÞ
wðt þ dtÞ ¼ exp iH ð1:98Þ
@t

where a Hermitian Hamiltonian H ^ ðtÞ yields a unitary propagator exp iH^ ðtÞdt ,
which conserves the 2-norm on the wavefunction space, and therefore conserves the
sum of probabilities.

1.6.1 Euclidean and Minkowski Spaces

A linear space V over R is called Euclidean [16] if it has an inner product h j i :

ðV  V Þ ! R that satisfies the following properties:

Table 1.4 Physicists’ and Mathematics Physics

mathematicians’ commutator
and exponential map Commutator ½A; B ¼ C ½A; B ¼ iC
Exponential map exp½A exp½iA
26 1 Mathematical Background

1. Symmetry:

8a; b 2 V hajbi ¼ hbjai ð1:99Þ

2. Bilinearity:

hajab þ bci ¼ ahajbi þ bhajci

8a; b; c 2 V 8a; b 2 R ð1:100Þ
haa þ bbjci ¼ ahajci þ bhbjci

3. Positive definiteness:

8a 2 V hajai 0 ð1:101Þ

such that hajai is only zero when a ¼ 0.

Euclidean spaces correspond to the classical geometry where norms are real and
non-negative. Time cannot be introduced into this picture in a way that is consistent
with experimental observations: Michelson and Morley demonstrated in 1887 that
measurement devices in all inertial frames of reference report the same speed of
light, even if those frames are moving relative to one another [17]. An explanation
proposed by Lorentz in 1892 was that moving objects contract in the direction of
travel, and that their clocks slow down as velocity is increased [18]. The corre-
sponding transformations were named boosts; observations suggested that boosts
are orthochronous (preserve the direction of time), and satisfy the properties of a
Lie group [7]: closure (two boosts in a sequence are another boost), invertibility (it
is possible to undo a boost), the existence of a unique unit boost (corresponding to
no change in velocity), and continuity (the dependence on velocity is continuous).
Boosts also preserve vector addition operation on space-time, and are therefore
linear operators representable by matrices.
If we point the X-axis in the direction of travel and use ct instead of t to make
units consistent in space-time vectors, we arrive at the following general form for
the boost operation:  0  
ct ct
¼ K X ðvÞ ð1:102Þ
x0 x

where KX ðvÞ is a real 2  2 matrix that depends on the velocity v. It must obey the
group properties:
KX ðv1 þ v2 Þ ¼ KX ðv2 ÞKX ðv1 Þ
ð1:103Þ
KX ðvÞKX ð þ vÞ ¼ KX ð0Þ ¼ 1

These conditions yield a system of equations for the elements of the matrix; the
solution is
 
1 1 v=c
KX ðvÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð1:104Þ
1  v2 =c2 v=c 1
1.6 Building Blocks of Spin Physics 27

Importantly, the quantity this transformation leaves invariant is x2  c2 t2 , and

therefore the metric on space-time is not positive definite (c.f. Sect. 1.4.1)—this is
not a Euclidean space.
The procedure may be repeated for the other directions to obtain similar
expressions for KY and KZ . In three spatial dimensions, the map h j i : ðV  V Þ !
R that is invariant under boosts is

hajbi ¼ a0 b0 þ a1 b1 þ a2 b2 þ a3 b3 ð1:105Þ

where a and b are vectors with elements listed in the order fct; x; y; zg. This map is
symmetric and bilinear, and may be viewed as a kind of inner product:

1. 8a; b 2 V hajbi ¼ hbjai

2. 8a; b; c 2 V 8a; b 2 R haa þ bbjci ¼ ahajci þ bhbjci
However, the corresponding norm:
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
kak ¼ hajai ¼ a20 þ a21 þ a22 þ a23 ð1:106Þ

need not be a real number. This construct is called Minkowski space [19], its points
are called events, and the “distance” between two events, as defined by Eq. (1.106),
is invariant under spatial rotations and boosts.

1.6.2 Special Orthogonal Group in Three Dimensions

Orthogonal transformations of an N-dimensional metric vector space over R are

those that preserve the 2-norm and its associated inner product. Such transforma-
tions are represented faithfully by orthogonal matrices, for which an equivalent
definition is that their transpose is equal to their inverse:

8x; y 2 RN hxjOT Ojyi ¼ hx j yi , OT ¼ O1 ð1:107Þ

The superposition of two orthogonal transformations is also orthogonal. Together

with the identity transformation, this makes a group (Sect. 1.4.2), called orthogonal
group and denoted OðNÞ.
Because OT O ¼ 1 and the matrices are real, the eigenvalues of O (and therefore
the determinant which is their product) can only be equal to 1. Since
detðABÞ ¼ detðAÞ detðBÞ, the subset of OðNÞ in which the matrices have a deter-
minant of þ 1 is a subgroup, called the special orthogonal group:

SOðNÞ ¼ fA 2 OðNÞj detðAÞ ¼ 1g ð1:108Þ

28 1 Mathematical Background

Thus, OðNÞ has two connected components, and the one containing the identity is
SOðNÞ. In a three-dimensional Euclidean space, Oð3Þ ¼ SOð3Þ  I. The elements
of SOð3Þ are rotations, and the non-unit element of I ¼ f þ 1; 1g performs
coordinate inversion operation.
SOð3Þ is a non-Abelian triparametric simple Lie group. Its generators with
respect to the exp½ig map may be obtained (Sect. 1.5.7) from rotation matrices
(corkscrew rule for positive rotation, ISO 31-11) around the three Cartesian axes:
0 1 0 1
1 0 0 0 0 0
B C B C
RX ðuÞ ¼ @ 0 þ cos u  sin u A ¼ exp½iLX u; LX ¼ @ 0 0 i A
0 þ sin u þ cos u 0 þi 0
0 1 0 1
þ cos u 0 þ sin u 0 0 þi
B C B C
RY ðuÞ ¼ @ 0 1 0 A ¼ exp½iLY u; LY ¼ @ 0 0 0 A
 sin u 0 þ cos u i 0 0
0 1 0 1
þ cos u  sin u 0 0 i 0
B C B C
RY ðuÞ ¼ @ þ sin u þ cos u 0 A ¼ exp½iLZ u; LZ ¼ @ þ i 0 0A
0 0 1 0 0 0
ð1:109Þ

The corresponding Lie algebra soð3Þ is spanned by linear combinations of

fLX ; LY ; LZ g with real coefficients. Commutation relations and the Casimir ele-
ment are obtained by direct calculation:

½La ; Lb  ¼ ieabc Lc C ¼ L2X þ L2Y þ L2Z ð1:110Þ

where eabc is the Levi-Civita symbol [331]. The general form of the group element:

Rðn; uÞ ¼ exp½iðnX LX þ nY LY þ nZ LZ Þu ð1:111Þ

has the physical meaning of a rotation around the unit vector n by an angle u. It follows
that groups of uniaxial rotations are uniparametric Abelian subgroups of SOð3Þ.
SOð3Þ is not simply connected; this may be seen from a geometric interpretation
of Eq. (1.111): every rotation may be identified with a vector whose direction
defines the rotation axis and the length defines the rotation angle—SOð3Þ is thus
mapped onto a ball of radius p. This ball has a periodic boundary: þ p and p
rotations around the same axis are the same transformation, and thus the opposing
points on the surface of the ball correspond to the same rotation. This creates two
non-intersecting classes of continuous paths between any two elements of SOð3Þ:
one through the volume of the ball, and one that cuts across the surface. Because the
entry and the exit points on the surface must stay diametrically opposed, there is no
possibility of a continuous transformation between the two classes of paths. We,
therefore, conclude that SOð3Þ is doubly connected.
1.6 Building Blocks of Spin Physics 29

1.6.2.1 Parametrisation of Rotations

Throughout this book, all three-dimensional rotations are active: we always rotate
the object, and never the reference frame. The simplest way to specify a rotation
unambiguously is to give the corresponding 3  3 rotation matrix. Unfortunately,
that was rarely done in the history of physics and engineering—a large number of
rotation specification conventions exist, some of them exasperatingly fiddly, usually
as a consequence of the generators associated with different parameters not being
linearly independent [20].

1.6.2.2 Euler Angles Parametrisation

This is a historically important [21] but treacherous convention that is regularly blamed
for airplane and satellite malfunctions. The active rotation convention is as follows:

1. Rotate the object about the Z-axis through an angle c 2 ½0; 2pÞ
2. Rotate the object about the Y-axis through an angle b 2 ½0; pÞ
3. Rotate the object about the Z-axis through an angle a 2 ½0; 2pÞ

For column vectors in R3 , the following matrix performs the rotation:

0 10 10 1
þ cos a  sin a 0 þ cos b 0 þ sin b þ cos c  sin c 0
Rða; b; cÞ ¼ @ þ sin a þ cos a 0 A@ 0 1 0 A@ þ sin c þ cos c 0 A
0 0 1  sin b 0 þ cos b 0 0 1
ð1:112Þ

Euler angles should be avoided whenever possible: the transformation from

fa; b; cg into the rotation matrix R is well defined, but the inverse transformation is
not, because the first and the last generator are the same. When b ¼ 0 or b ¼ p, it is
impossible to extract a and c individually because only a þ c is constrained. This
creates insidious numerical difficulties.

1.6.2.3 Angle-Axis Parametrisation

Any rotation may be specified as a unit vector n and a turning angle u around that
vector:
Rðn; uÞ ¼ exp½iðLX nX þ LY nY þ LZ nZ Þu ð1:113Þ

The connection to the rotation matrix is:

Rðn; uÞ
2 3
cos u þ n2X ð1  cos uÞ nX nY ð1  cos uÞ  nZ sin u nX nZ ð1  cos uÞ þ nY sin u
6 7
¼ 4 nY nX ð1  cos uÞ þ nZ sin u cos u þ n2Y ð1  cos uÞ nY nZ ð1  cos uÞ  nX sin u 5
nZ nX ð1  cos uÞ  nY sin u nZ nY ð1  cos uÞ þ nX sin u cos u þ n2Z ð1  cos uÞ
ð1:114Þ
30 1 Mathematical Background

Composition of rotations is particularly simple in the angle-axis parametrisation.

Given two rotations ðn1 ; u1 Þ and ðn2 ; u2 Þ, the rotation ðn; uÞ corresponding to their
superposition is
u  u 
a ¼ tan 1 n1 ; b ¼ tan 2 n2
2 2
u ð1:115Þ
aþb  a  b
c¼ ; c ¼ tan n
1ab 2
When expressing a rotation via parameters is for some reason unavoidable, of
the many possible ways of doing that, the angle-axis parametrisation is the least
problematic.

1.6.2.4 Irreducible Representations

The smallest faithful irrep of SOð3Þ is three-dimensional, an example is Eq. (1.109);
other irreps are obtained by taking direct products of those matrices and diago-
nalising the Casimir element of the resulting representation. A tedious calculation
demonstrates [22] that irreducible representations have dimension lðl þ 1Þ where l is
a positive integer, and m runs in integer increments between l and þ l:

ðlÞ
L2 m;m
¼ lðl þ 1Þ, ½½LZ ðm;m lÞ
¼m
ðlÞ
p ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi
½½L þ m þ 1;m ¼ lðl þ 1Þ  mðm þ 1Þ; LX ¼ ðL þ þ L Þ=2 ð1:116Þ
ðlÞ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
½½L m1;m ¼ lðl þ 1Þ  mðm  1Þ; LY ¼ ðL þ  L Þ=2i

where the double square brackets indicate a matrix representation. Irreps of finite
rotations (called Wigner D matrices [23]) are obtained by exponentiating the
generators:
ðlÞ ðl Þ ðl Þ
DðlÞ ða; b; cÞ ¼ eiLZ a eiLY b eiLZ c
ð1:117Þ
DðlÞ ðn; uÞ ¼ ei½nX LX þ nY LY þ nZ LZ u
ðl Þ ðl Þ ðlÞ

for active ZYZ Euler angles and the angle-axis parametrisation, respectively.

1.6.3 Special Unitary Group in Two Dimensions

Unitary transformations of an N-dimensional metric vector space over C are those

that preserve the norm and the scalar product. They are represented faithfully by a
unitary matrices, for which an equivalent definition is that their conjugate transpose
is equal to the inverse:
1.6 Building Blocks of Spin Physics 31

8x; y 2 CN hxjUy Ujyi ¼ hx j yi , Uy ¼ U1 ð1:118Þ

The superposition of two unitary transformations is also unitary. Together with the
identity transformation, this makes a group (Sect. 1.5), called unitary group and
denoted UðNÞ.
Because Uy U ¼ 1, all eigenvalues of U must have the form eiu where u is a real
number. Their product, i.e. the determinant of U, must therefore also have that
form. Since detðABÞ ¼ detðAÞ detðBÞ, the subset of UðNÞ in which detðUÞ ¼ 1 is a
subgroup, called special unitary group:

SUðNÞ ¼ fU 2 UðNÞj detðUÞ ¼ 1g ð1:119Þ

1.6.3.1 Parametrisation
In two dimensions, the definition leads to the following general form for the ele-
ments of SUð2Þ:
  
z w  2 2
SUð2Þ ¼ z; w 2 C; j z j þ j wj ¼ 1 ð1:120Þ
w z 

To build generators, we will observe that unitary matrices are complex exponentials
of Hermitian ones:

Hy ¼ H , ½expðiHÞ½expðiHÞy ¼ 1 ð1:121Þ

and that the unit determinant of expðiHÞ requires H to be traceless, because

det eA ¼ eTrðAÞ . Therefore, SUð2Þ is generated under exp½ig by traceless 2  2
Hermitian matrices.
A complex 2  2 matrix has eight independent real parameters. The Hermitian
property requires the imaginary parts of the diagonal elements to be zero, this leaves
six parameters. The requirement for zero trace puts a linear constraint on the
diagonal elements and leaves five independent parameters. Finally, the requirement
for the matrix to be Hermitian means that the off-diagonal elements must be
complex conjugates of each other; this leaves three independent real parameters. It
follows that SUð2Þ is simply connected—the three parameters can be mapped onto
a unit sphere in four dimensions:

z ¼ a þ ib; w ¼ c þ id; a;b; c; d 2 R

2 2
ð1:122Þ
jzj þ jwj ¼ 1 , a þ b þ c 2 þ d2 ¼ 1
2 2

which is connected, path-connected, and compact.

32 1 Mathematical Background

1.6.3.2 Irreducible Representations

Three linearly independent traceless Hermitian 2  2 matrices are easily found; a
particularly convenient set (chosen for simple commutation relations and sparse
direct products) is
     
0 1=2 0 i=2 1=2 0
SX ¼ ; SY ¼ ; SZ ¼ ð1:123Þ
1=2 0 i=2 0 0 1=2

where Cartesian indices are used in the expectation of the physical meaning that
these matrices will acquire later in the book. The corresponding Lie algebra suð2Þ is
spanned by linear combinations of fSX ; SY ; SZ g with real coefficients. The general
form of the group element is

UðxÞ ¼ exp½iðxX SX þ xY SY þ xZ SZ Þ; x 2 R3 ð1:124Þ

Commutation relations and the complex envelope are obtained by a direct cal-
culation:
½SX ; SY  ¼ iSZ ; ½SZ ; SX  ¼ iSY ; ½SY ; SZ  ¼ iSX ð1:125Þ

Sþ ¼ SX þ iSY ; S ¼ SX  iSY ; S2 ¼ S2X þ S2Y þ S2Z ð1:126Þ

S2 ; SX;Y;Z ¼ 0; ½SZ ; S  ¼ S ; ½Sþ ; S  ¼ 2SZ ð1:127Þ

The smallest faithful representation is two-dimensional, an example is Eq. (1.123).

Irreps of other dimensions are obtained by taking Kronecker products of those
matrices and diagonalising the Casimir operator. A tedious calculation [22] demon-
strates that irreducible representations have dimension sðs þ 1Þ where s is a positive
integer or half-integer, and m runs in integer increments between s and þ s:

ðsÞ
S2 m;m
¼ sðs þ 1Þ, ½½SZ ðm;m lÞ
¼m
ðsÞ
p ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
½½Sþ m þ 1;m ¼ sðs þ 1Þ  mðm þ 1Þ; SX ¼ ðSþ þ S Þ=2 ð1:128Þ
ðsÞ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
½½S m1;m ¼ sðs þ 1Þ  mðm  1Þ; SY ¼ ðSþ  S Þ=2i

Irreps corresponding to integer values of s are the same as the irreps of soð3Þ;
representations of group elements are obtained by exponentiating (using physicists’
map, Sect. 1.6) linear combinations of generators with real coefficients.

1.6.3.3 Normalisation-Commutation Dilemma

Irreducible representations obtained above are faithful for the Lie algebra, but not
for its associative envelope: commutation relations do not depend on the repre-
ð1=2Þ
sentation dimension, but product relations do—for example, the square of SZ is a
1.6 Building Blocks of Spin Physics 33

ð1Þ
multiple of a unit matrix, but the square of SZ is not. This means that any metric
would be representation-dependent; the Frobenius norm is a good example:
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
h iffi
kAkF ¼ Tr A A y

      pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð1:129Þ
 ðsÞ   ðsÞ   ðsÞ  sðs þ 1Þð2s þ 1Þ
SX  ¼ SY  ¼ SZ  ¼
F F F 3

The generators should not be normalised because that would make commutation
properties representation dependent, and that is not a good idea: suð2Þ is first and
foremost a Lie algebra, and only optionally a metric space. This normalisation-
commutation dilemma is delicate: as we shall later see, consistent commutation
relations are more important than consistent normalisation. The same applies to
soð3Þ.

1.6.4 Relationship Between SU(2) and SO(3)

SUð2Þ and SOð3Þ both have three real parameters, and it is apparent from Eqs.
(1.110) and (1.125) that their generator sets have identical commutation relations:

½Sa ; Sb  ¼ ieabc Sc ½La ; Lb  ¼ ieabc Lc ð1:130Þ

meaning that suð2Þ and soð3Þ are isomorphic as Lie algebras. However, their Lie
groups are not isomorphic—two different elements of SUð2Þ correspond to each
element of SOð3Þ, for example:
0 1
  1 0 0
1 0
exp½2piSY  ¼ ; exp½2piLY  ¼ @ 0 1 0A
0 1
00 0 11
ð1:131Þ
  1 0 0
þ1 0
exp½4piSY  ¼ ; exp½4piLY  ¼ @ 0 1 0A
0 þ1
0 0 1

Thus, the orbits in SUð2Þ are twice as long as those in SOð3Þ—in the special unitary
group, the parameter goes to 4p in any direction before the group starts repeating
itself. This is a double cover (Sect. 1.5.10): the factor group SUð2Þ=S2 is isomor-
phic to SOð3Þ, where S2 is the permutation group of two objects. It is sometimes
erroneously stated that SUð2Þ and SOð3Þ have the same Lie algebra. That is not the
case—suð2Þ and soð3Þ are isomorphic as Lie algebras, but they are not identical.
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 Eliza Ripley

We sat, to rest, on benches in the old Place d’Armes. I looked at

those Pontalba buildings, that faded, dilapidated, ramshackle row,
and remembered how fine and imposing it was, in my day, and how I
had wished that father would take one of those elegant houses,
where we would be so near the French market, and the shop of
beads and shells, and monkeys and parrots.
We strolled up Royal Street, and the little girl saw the house in
which the Boufords lived, sixty years ago. The saucy child ventured
to remark she always had thought I visited nice people, but they
must have lived in shabby houses. I did not notice her comment, but
proceeded to point to the balcony where I stood to see a Mardi Gras
procession, a frolicsome lot of the festive beaux of the period, and to
catch the bonbons and confetti they threw at us from the landeaus
and gaily decked wagons. It was long after the Mardi Gras of the
thirties, and long, long before the Mardi Gras of to-day, a kind of
interregnum, that the young fashionable men were turning into a
festival. I recall Mrs. Slocomb’s disgust when Cuthbert fell ill of
pneumonia, after his exposure that day. Cuthbert Slocomb was
chubby and blond, and with bare neck and short sleeves, tied up
with baby blue ribbon, a baby cap similarly decorated, he made a
very good counterfeit baby, seated, too, in a high chair, with a rattle
to play with. The “mamma” had long black ringlets and wore a
fashionable bonnet. I have forgotten, if in fact I ever knew, what
youth represented the mamma. There were no masks, but the
disguises with paint, powder and wigs were sufficient to make them
unrecognizable. If Cuthbert Slocomb had not been ill, I probably
would not have known the “baby.”
 A New Orleans Cemetery.

During that visit I went to the cemetery Decoration Day. Mind you,
I have seen about forty Decoration days, North—but this one in my
own Southland, among my own beloved dead, has been the only
Decoration Day I have ever seen in a cemetery. (I wish my feelings
were not quite so strong.) Phine and I stood beside the tomb that
contains the dust of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, a man I had
known well, a contemporary and valued friend of my father’s, a man
whose children and grandchildren were dear to me. We saw the
solemn procession file in, and halt a little beyond us. The band
played “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” and hundreds of voices joined in
the musical prayer. I could not sing, I never could, but I could weep,
and my eyes were not the only moist ones in the assembly. Such a
throng of sober, sad people there was, such a lot of veterans, many
in shabby, weather-stained gray, that bore evidence of hard
service....
Phine had kept track of the people from whom I had been so long
separated that age had obliterated means by which I could recognize
them. As a veteran, in the shabby old gray (I felt like taking everyone
such by the hand), approached, Phine caught my arm and
whispered “Douglas West,” and at the same moment his eye met
mine with a flash of recognition. I had not seen Douglas for over
thirty years. And weren’t we glad to meet? on that ground, too, so
sacred to both of us. And didn’t we meet and meet and talk and talk,
many times thereafter, in Phine’s dear little parlor on Carondelet
Street? Indeed, we did.
Later on, Phine whispered, “You knew that man, I’ll tell you who he
is after he passes us.” A quite tottering, wrinkled, old man passed. I
gave him a good stare, shook my head. I did not know, nor think I
ever had known him. It was A. B. Cammack—who would have
believed it? He was a bachelor in 1850, the time when I thought a
man of thirty was an old man. We happened to be fellow passengers
on that fashionable A No. 1 steamboat, Belle Key. I was a frisky
young miss, and Mr. Cammack was, as I say, an old bachelor. He did
not know, nor want to know anybody on the boat, but it happened he
was introduced to our small party, at the moment of sailing, so we
had a reluctant sort of bowing acquaintance for the first day or so.
Broderie Anglaise was all the rage. Any woman who had time for
frivolité, as the Creoles called tatting, was busy working eyelets on
linen. Of course I had Broderie, too. Mr. Cammack gradually thawed,
and brought a book to read to me while my fingers flew over the
fascinating eyelets. The book, I distinctly remember, was “Aunt
Patsy’s Scrap Bag,” a medley of silly nonsensical stuff, written by a
woman so long dead and so stupid while she lived that nobody even
hears of her now, but Mr. Cammack was immensely entertaining and
witty, and we roared over that volume, and his comments thereon. I
have often dwelt on that steamboat episode, but I doubt if it ever
gave him a moment’s thought. I really think if it had been like my
meeting with Douglas West we might have had quite a bit of fun,
living again that week on the Belle Key. A hearty laugh, such as we
had together, so many years before, might have smoothed some of
the wrinkles from his careworn face, and a few crow’s feet out of
mine. But he never knew, possibly would not have cared if he had
known, that we almost touched hands in the crowd on that
Decoration Day.
 On and on we strolled, past a grand monument to the memory of
Dr. Choppin, whom I knew so well, and loved too, girl fashion, when
he was twenty, and who sailed away, boy fashion, to complete his
medical education in Paris. Maybe if we had met, in the flesh, on that
Decoration Day, it might have been a la Cammack. We never did
meet, after that memorable sailing away, but he has a tender niche
in my heart even yet, and I was pleased to see some loving hand
had decorated that sacred spot....
Phine and I strolled about after the ceremonies were completed.
She had a toy broom and a toy watering pot in the keeper’s cottage,
and was reluctant to leave before she had straightened and
freshened the bouquets we had placed on the tombs of the dead she
loved, and swept away the dust, and watered the little grass border
again.
A year ago she herself fell asleep and was laid to rest in the lovely
cemetery, and with her death the last close tie was broken that
bound me to New Orleans.
 Eliza Moore, tenth of the twelve children of Richard Henry and
Betsey Holmes Chinn, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on the first
day of February, 1832.
Three years later Judge Chinn moved his family to New Orleans,
where he continued the practice of law until his death in ’47.
On August 24, 1852, Eliza Chinn and James Alexander McHatton
were married in Lexington, and for ten years thereafter they lived at
Arlington plantation on the Mississippi, a few miles below Baton
Rouge, leaving hastily in ’62, upon the appearance of Federal
gunboats at their levee.
During the remainder of the war they lived almost continuously in
army ambulances, convoying cotton from Louisiana across Texas to
Mexico.
In February, 1865, they went to Cuba, and lived there until the
death of Mr. McHatton, owning and operating, with mixed negro and
coolie labor, a large sugar plantation—“Desengaño.”
After her return to the United States Mrs. McHatton was married to
Dwight Ripley, July 9, 1873, and the remainder of her life was
passed in the North. In 1887 Mrs. Ripley published “From Flag to
Flag”—a narrative of her war-time and Cuban experiences, now out
of print.
The reminiscences which make up the present volume have been
written at intervals during the last three or four years. The final
arrangements for their publication were sanctioned by her the day
before she passed away—on July 13, 1912, in the eighty-first year of
her age.
E. R. N.

UNLIKE ANY OTHER BOOK.

A Virginia Girl in the Civil War.

 Being the Authentic Experiences of a Confederate Major’s Wife
who followed her Husband into Camp at the Outbreak of the War.
Dined and Supped with General J. E. B. Stuart, ran the Blockade to
Baltimore, and was in Richmond when it was Evacuated. Collected
and edited by Myrta Lockett Avary. 12mo. Cloth, $1.25 net;
postage additional.
“The people described are gentlefolk to the back-bone, and the reader must be
a hard-hearted cynic if he does not fall in love with the ingenuous and delightful girl
who tells the story.”—New York Sun.
“The narrative is one that both interests and charms. The beginning of the end of
the long and desperate struggle is unusually well told, and how the survivors lived
during the last days of the fading Confederacy forms a vivid picture of those
distressful times.”—Baltimore Herald.
“The style of the narrative is attractively informal and chatty. Its pathos is that of
simplicity. It throws upon a cruel period of our national career a side-light, bringing
out tender and softening interests too little visible in the pages of formal history.”—
New York World.
“This is a tale that will appeal to every Southern man and woman, and can not
fail to be of interest to every reader. It is as fresh and vivacious, even in dealing
with dark days, as the young soul that underwent the hardships of a most cruel
war.”—Louisville Courier-Journal.
“The narrative is not formal, is often fragmentary, and is always warmly
human.... There are scenes among the dead and wounded, but as one winks back
a tear the next page presents a negro commanded to mount a strange mule in
midstream, at the injustice of which he strongly protests.”—New York Telegram.
“Taken at this time, when the years have buried all resentment, dulled all
sorrows, and brought new generations to the scenes, a work of this kind can not
fail of value just as it can not fail in interest. Official history moves with too great
strides to permit of the smaller, more intimate events; fiction lacks the realistic,
powerful appeal of actuality; such works as this must be depended upon to fill in
the unoccupied interstices, to show us just what were the lives of those who were
in this conflict or who lived in the midst of it without being able actively to
participate in it. And of this type ‘A Virginia Girl in the Civil War’ is a truly admirable
example.”—Philadelphia Record.

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.

THE GREATEST LIVING ACTRESS.

Memories of My Life.
By Sarah Bernhardt. Profusely illustrated. 8vo. Ornamental
cloth, $4.00 net; postage 30 cents additional.
The most famous of living actresses, Sarah Bernhardt has lived
life to the full as a builder and manager of theatres, author, painter
and sculptor. She turned her theatre into a hospital during the Siege
of Paris. She played French classics in a tent in Texas. She wrote
“Memories of My Life” with her own hand, and with her own
inimitable verve.
“Great is Bernhardt, and great is any true description of her life, for nothing more
fascinatingly brilliant could have come from the mind of the most daring of
fictionists. The autobiography is as interesting to those who care nothing for the
theatre as to those devoted to it.”—Baltimore Sun.
“It is the work of a genius which feels and sees with instinctive insight and
understanding, and puts into words such a bright and varied panorama of life as it
has been given to few authors to portray.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer.
“Out of an overflowing reservoir of reminiscence the author pours out a flood of
anecdote and of dramatic story, and she always gives the idea that she is only
skimming the surface and that other treasures lie always below.”—San Francisco
Argonaut.
“The book is interesting and entertaining from cover to cover, and is related with
a vivacity that is engaging.”—Toledo Blade.
“The eventful life lived by Madame Bernhardt both on and off the stage is told
with great charm. Not only has the greatest actress of her generation more to tell
than the majority of persons who write memoirs, but she has the gift of recounting
the things that have befallen her with a real literary skill.”—Publishers’ Weekly.

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOCIAL LIFE IN
OLD NEW ORLEANS ***

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