Acknowledgments

This set of lecture notes accompanies Frederic Schullers course on Quantum Theory, taught
in the summer of 2015 at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universitt Erlangen-Nrnberg as part
of the Elite Graduate Programme.
The entire course is hosted on YouTube at the following address:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPH7f_7ZlzxQVx5jRjbfRGEzWY_upS5K6

These lecture notes are not endorsed by Dr. Schuller or the University.
While I have tried to correct typos and errors made during the lectures (some helpfully
pointed out by YouTube commenters), I have also taken the liberty to add and/or modify
some of the material at various points in the notes. Any errors that may result from this
are, of course, mine.
If you have any comments regarding these notes, feel free to get in touch. Visit my
blog for the most up to date version of these notes

http://mathswithphysics.blogspot.com

My gratitude goes to Dr. Schuller for lecturing this course and for making it available
on YouTube.

Simon Rea
4 Projectors, bras and kets

4.1 Projectors
Projectors play a key role in quantum theory, as you can see from Axioms 2 and 5.
Definition. Let H be a separable Hilbert space. Fix a unit vector e H (that is, kek = 1)
and let H. The projection of to e is
:= he|ie
while the orthogonal complement of is
:= .
We can extend these definitions to a countable orthonormal subset {ei }iN H, i.e. a
subset of H whose elements are pairwise orthogonal and have unit norm. Note that {ei }iN
need not be a basis of H.
Proposition 4.1. Let H and let {ei }iN H be an orthonormal subset. Then
(a) we can write = + , where

X
:= hei |iei , :=
i=0
and we have
i N : h |ei i = 0.

(b) Pythagoras theorem holds:

kk2 = k k2 + k k2 .
Note that this is an extension to the finite-dimensional case.

(c) for any span{ei | i N}, we have the estimate

k k k k
with equality if, and only if, = .
Proof. First consider the case of a finite orthonormal subset {e0 , . . . , en } H.
(a) Let and be defined as in the proposition. Then + = and
 Xn  

h |ei i = hej |iej  ei
j=0
n
X
= h|ei i hej |ihej |ei i
j=0
n
X
= h|ei i h|ej iji
j=0
= h|ei i h|ei i
=0
for all 0 i n.

1
 (b) From part (a), we have
  n  Xn
X
h | i = 
 hei |iei = hei |ih |ei i = 0.
i=0 i=0

Hence, by (the finite-dimensional) Pythagoras theorem

kk2 = k + k2 = k k2 + k k2 .
Pn
(c) Let span{ei | 0 i n}. Then = i=0 i ei for some 0 , . . . , n C. Hence

k k2 = k + k2
Xn n
X 2

= +
hei |iei i e i

i=0 i=0
n
X 2

=
+ (hei |i i )ei

i=0
n
X
= k k2 + |hei |i i |2
i=0

and thus k k k k since |hei |i i |2 > 0 for all 0 i n. Moreover, we

have equality if, and only if, |hei |i i | = 0 for all 0 i n, that is = .

To extend this to a countably infinite orthonormal set {ei }iN , note that by part (b)
and Bessels inequality, we have

n n
X 2 X
|hei |i|2 kk2 .

hei |iei =

i=0 i=0
Pn
Since |hei
|i|2 0, the sequence of partial sums i=0 |hei |i| nN is monotonically
2

increasing and bounded from above by kk. Hence, it converges and this implies that

X
:= hei |iei
i=0

exists as an element of H. The extension to the countably infinite case then follows by
continuity of the inner product.

4.2 Closed linear subspaces

We will often be interested in looking at linear subspaces of a Hilbert space H, i.e. subsets
M H such that
, M : z C : z + M.
Note that while every linear subspace M H inherits the inner product on H to become
an inner product space, it may fail to be complete with respect to this inner product. In
other words, non every linear subspace of a Hilbert space is necessarily a sub-Hilbert space.
The following definitions are with respect to the norm topology on a normed space and
can, of course, be given more generally on an arbitrary topological space.

2
Definition. Let H be a normed space. A subset M H is said to be open if

M : r > 0 : H : k k < M.

Equivalently, by defining the open ball of radius r > 0 and centre H

Br () := { H | k k < r},

we can define M H to be open if

M : r > 0 : Br () M.

Definition. A subset M H is said to be closed if its complement H \ M is open.

Proposition 4.2. A closed subset M of a complete normed space H is complete.

Proof. Let {n }nN be a Cauchy sequence in the closed subset M. Then, {n }nN is also
a Cauchy sequence in H, and hence it converges to some H since H is complete. We
want to show that, in fact, M. Suppose, for the sake of contradiction, that / M,
i.e. H \ M. Since M is closed, H \ M is open. Hence, there exists r > 0 such that

H : k k < r H \ M.

However, since is the limit of {n }nN , there exists N N such that

n N : kn k < r.

Hence, for all n N , we have n H \ M, i.e. n / M, contradicting the fact that

{n }nN is a sequence in M. Thus, we must have M.

Corollary 4.3. A closed linear subspace M of a Hilbert space H is a sub-Hilbert space with
the inner product on H. Moreover, if H is separable, then so is M.

Knowing that a linear subspace of a Hilbert space is, in fact, a sub-Hilbert space can
be very useful. For instance, we know that there exists an orthonormal basis for the linear
subspace. Note that the converse to the corollary does not hold: a sub-Hilbert space need
not be a closed linear subspace.

4.3 Orthogonal projections

Definition. Let M H be a (not necessarily closed) linear subspace of H. The set

M := { H | M : h|i = 0}

is called the orthogonal complement of M in H.

Proposition 4.4. Let M H be a linear subspace of H. Then, M is a closed linear

subspace of H.

3
Proof. Let 1 , 2 M and z C. Then, for all M

h|z1 + 2 i = zh|1 i + h|2 i = 0

and hence z1 + 2 M. Thus, M is a linear subspace of H. It remains to be shown

that it is also closed. Define the maps

f : H C
7 h|i.

Then, we can write \

M = preimf ({0}).
M

Since the inner product is continuous (in each slot), the maps f are continuous. Hence, the
pre-images of closed sets are closed. As the singleton {0} is closed in the standard topology
on C, the sets preimf ({0}) are closed for all M. Thus, M is closed since arbitrary
intersections of closed sets are closed.

Note that by Pythagoras theorem, we have the decomposition

H = M M := { + | M, M }

for any closed linear subspace M.

Definition. Let M be a closed linear subspace of a separable Hilbert space H and fix some
orthonormal basis of M. The map

PM : H M
7

is called the orthogonal projector to M.

Proposition 4.5. Let PM : H M be an orthogonal projector to M H. Then

2 =P
(i) PM PM = PM , sometimes also written as PM M

(ii) , H : hPM |i = h|PM i

(iii) PM =

(iv) PM L(H, M).

Proof. Let {ei }iI and {ei }iJ be bases of M and M respectively, where I, J are either
finite or countably infinite, such that {ei }iIJ is a basis of H (in the latter case, we think
of I as having a definite ordering).

4
 (i) Let H. Then
X 
PM (PM ) := PM hei |iei
iI

X  X 
;= ej  hei |iei ej
jI iI
XX
= hei |ihej |ei iej
jI iI
X
= hei |iei
iI
=: PM .

(ii) Let , H. Then

X  

hPM |i := hei |iei 
iI
X
= hei |ihei |i
iI
X
= hei |ih|ei i
iI
  
X
=   hei |iei
iI
=: h|PM i.

(iii) Let H. Then

X X X
PM + PM = hei |iei + hei |iei = hei |iei = .
iI iJ iIJ

Hence
PM = PM = =: .

(iv) Let H. Then, by Pythagoras theorem,

kPM k k k kk k k
sup = sup = sup 1<
H kk H kk H kk

Quite interesting, and heavily used, is the converse.

Theorem 4.6. Let P L(H, H) have the properties
(i) P P = P

(ii) , H : hP|i = h|Pi.

Then, the range P(H) of P is closed and

P = PP(H) .

In other words, every projector is the orthogonal projector to some closed linear subspace.

5
4.4 Riesz representation theorem, bras and kets
Let H be a Hilbert space. Consider again the map
f : H C
7 h|i.
for H. The linearity in the second argument of the inner product implies that this map
is linear. Moreover, by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, we have
|f ()| |h|i| kkkk
sup = sup sup = kk < .
H kk H kk H kk
Hence, f L(H, C) =: H . Therefore, to every element of of H, there is associated an
element f in the dual space H . In fact, the converse is also true.
Theorem 4.7 (Riesz representation). Every f H is of the form f for a unique H.
Proof. First, suppose that f = 0, i.e. f is the zero functional on H. Then, clearly, f = f0
with 0 H. Hence, suppose that f 6= 0. Since, ker f := preimf ({0}) is a closed linear
subspace, we can write
H = ker f (ker f ) .
As f 6= 0, there exists some H such that / ker f . Hence, ker f 6= H, and thus
(ker f ) 6= {0}. Let (ker f ) \ {0} and assume, w.l.o.g., that kk = 1. Define
:= f () (ker f ) .
Then, for any H, we have
f () f () := h|i f ()
:= hf ()|i f ()h|i
= h|f ()i h|f ()i
= h|f () f ()i.
Note that
f (f () f ()) = f ()f () f ()f () = 0,
that is, f () f () ker f . Since (ker f ) , we have
h|f () f ()i = 0
and hence f () = f () for all H, i.e. f = f . For uniqueness, suppose that
f = f1 = f2
for some 1 , 1 H. Then, for any H,
0 = f1 () f2 ()
= h1 |i h2 |i
= h1 2 |i
and hence, 1 = 2 by positive-definiteness.

6
 Therefore, the so-called Riesz map

R : H H
7 f h| i

is a linear isomorphism, and H and H be identified with one another as vector spaces.
This lead Dirac to suggest the following notation for the elements of the dual space

f h|.

Correspondingly, he wrote |i for the element H. Since h | i is a bracket, the first

half h | is called a bra, while the second half | i is called a ket (nobody knows where the
missing c is). With this notation, we have

f () h|(|i) h|i.

The notation makes evident the fact that, for any , H, we can always consider the
inner product h|i C as the result of applying f H to H.
The advantage of this notation is that some formul become more intuitive and hence
are more easily memorised. For a concrete example, consider

X
= hei |iei
i=0

where {en }nN is a basis of H. This becomes

X
|i = hei |i|ei i.
i=0

By allowing the scalar multiplication of kets also from the right, defined to yield the same
result as that on the left, we have

X
= |ei ihei |i.
i=0

Quite obviously, we can bracket this as

X 
= |ei ihei | |i,
i=0

where by quite obviously, we mean that we have a suppressed tensor product (see section
8 of the Lectures on the Geometric Anatomy of Theoretical Physics for more details on
tensors)

X 
= |ei i hei | |i.
i=0

7
Then, the sum in the round brackets is an element of H H . While H H is isomorphic
to End(H), its elements are maps H H C. Hence, one needs to either make this
isomorphism explicit or, equivalently,
X 


= |ei i hei | , |i .
i=0

All of this to be able to write

X
|ei ihei | = idH
i=0

and hence interpret the expansion of |i in terms of the basis as the insertion of an identity

X 
X
|i = idH |i = |ei ihei | |i = hei |i|ei i.
i=0 i=0

But the original expression was already clear in the first place, without the need to add
hidden tensor products and extra rules. Of course, part of the appeal of this notation is
that one can intuitively think of something like |ei ihei | as a map H H, by imagining
that the bra on the right acts on a ket in H, thereby producing a complex number which
becomes the coefficient of the remaining ket


|ei ihei | |i = |ei ihei |i = hei |i|ei i.

The major drawback of this notation, and the reason why we will not adopt it, is that
in many places (for instance, if we consider self-adjoint operators, or Hermitian operators)
this notation doesnt produce inconsistencies only if certain conditions are satisfied. While
these conditions will indeed be satisfied most of times, it becomes extremely confusing to
formulate conditions on our objects by using a notation that only makes sense if the objects
already satisfy conditions.
Of course, as this notation is heavily used in physics and related applied sciences, it is
necessary to be able to recognise it and become fluent in it. But note that it does not make
things clearer. If anything, it makes things more complicated.

8
Further readings

Mathematical quantum mechanics

Ballentine, Quantum Mechanics: A Modern Development (Second edition), World
Scientific 2014

Faddeev, Yakubovskii, Lectures on Quantum Mechanics for Mathematics Students,

American Mathematical Society 2009

Folland, Quantum Field Theory: A Tourist Guide for Mathematicians, American

Mathematical Society 2008

Gieres, Mathematical surprises and Diracs formalism in quantum mechanics

https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9907069

Hall, Quantum Theory for Mathematicians, Springer 2013

Mackey, Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Dover Publications 2004

Moretti, Spectral Theory and Quantum Mechanics: With an Introduction to the Al-
gebraic Formulation, Springer 2013

Parthasarathy, Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Hindustan Book

Agency 2005

Strocchi, An Introduction to the Mathematical Structure of Quantum Mechanics: A

Short Course for Mathematicians, World Scientific 2008

Takhtajan, Quantum Mechanics for Mathematicians, American Mathematical Society

2008

Linear Algebra
Friedberg, Insel, Spence, Linear Algebra (4th Edition), Pearson 2002

Functional analysis
Hunter, Nachtergaele, Applied Analysis, World Scientific, 2001

Kadison, Ringrose, Fundamentals of the Theory of Operator Algebras. Volumes I-II,

American Mathematical Society 1997

9
Alphabetical Index

B orthogonal complement 3
bras and kets 7
P
C
projection 1
closed set 3

O R
open set 3 Riesz map 7