Mathematical Methods

in Quantum Mechanics
With Applications to
Schrödinger Operators
SECOND EDITION

Gerald Teschl

Graduate Studies
in Mathematics
Volume 157

American Mathematical Society

Mathematical Methods
in Quantum Mechanics
With Applications
to Schrödinger Operators,
Second Edition
 https://doi.org/10.1090//gsm/157

Mathematical Methods
in Quantum Mechanics
With Applications
to Schrödinger Operators,
Second Edition

Gerald Teschl

Graduate Studies
in Mathematics
Volume 157

American Mathematical Society

Providence, Rhode Island
 EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Dan Abramovich
Daniel S. Freed
Rafe Mazzeo (Chair)
Gigliola Staffilani

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 81-01, 81Qxx, 46-01, 34Bxx, 47B25.

For additional information and updates on this book, visit

www.ams.org/bookpages/gsm-157

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Teschl, Gerald, 1970–
Mathematical methods in quantum mechanics : with applications to Schrödinger operators /
Gerald Teschl.– Second edition.
pages cm. — (Graduate studies in mathematics ; volume 157)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4704-1704-8 (alk. paper)
1. Schrödinger operator. 2. Quantum theory—Mathematics. I. Title.
QC174.17.S3T47 2014
530.120151—dc23
2014019123

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To Susanne, Simon, and Jakob
Contents

Preface xi

Part 0. Preliminaries

Chapter 0. A first look at Banach and Hilbert spaces 3

§0.1. Warm up: Metric and topological spaces 3
§0.2. The Banach space of continuous functions 14
§0.3. The geometry of Hilbert spaces 21
§0.4. Completeness 26
§0.5. Bounded operators 27
§0.6. Lebesgue Lp spaces 30
§0.7. Appendix: The uniform boundedness principle 38

Part 1. Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

Chapter 1. Hilbert spaces 43

§1.1. Hilbert spaces 43
§1.2. Orthonormal bases 45
§1.3. The projection theorem and the Riesz lemma 49
§1.4. Orthogonal sums and tensor products 52
§1.5. The C∗ algebra of bounded linear operators 54
§1.6. Weak and strong convergence 55
§1.7. Appendix: The Stone–Weierstraß theorem 59

Chapter 2. Self-adjointness and spectrum 63

vii
viii Contents

§2.1. Some quantum mechanics 63

§2.2. Self-adjoint operators 66
§2.3. Quadratic forms and the Friedrichs extension 76
§2.4. Resolvents and spectra 83
§2.5. Orthogonal sums of operators 89
§2.6. Self-adjoint extensions 91
§2.7. Appendix: Absolutely continuous functions 95
Chapter 3. The spectral theorem 99
§3.1. The spectral theorem 99
§3.2. More on Borel measures 112
§3.3. Spectral types 118
§3.4. Appendix: Herglotz–Nevanlinna functions 120
Chapter 4. Applications of the spectral theorem 131
§4.1. Integral formulas 131
§4.2. Commuting operators 135
§4.3. Polar decomposition 138
§4.4. The min-max theorem 140
§4.5. Estimating eigenspaces 142
§4.6. Tensor products of operators 143
Chapter 5. Quantum dynamics 145
§5.1. The time evolution and Stone’s theorem 145
§5.2. The RAGE theorem 150
§5.3. The Trotter product formula 155
Chapter 6. Perturbation theory for self-adjoint operators 157
§6.1. Relatively bounded operators and the Kato–Rellich theorem 157
§6.2. More on compact operators 160
§6.3. Hilbert–Schmidt and trace class operators 163
§6.4. Relatively compact operators and Weyl’s theorem 170
§6.5. Relatively form-bounded operators and the KLMN theorem 174
§6.6. Strong and norm resolvent convergence 179

Part 2. Schrödinger Operators

Chapter 7. The free Schrödinger operator 187
§7.1. The Fourier transform 187
Contents ix

§7.2. Sobolev spaces 194

§7.3. The free Schrödinger operator 197
§7.4. The time evolution in the free case 199
§7.5. The resolvent and Green’s function 201
Chapter 8. Algebraic methods 207
§8.1. Position and momentum 207
§8.2. Angular momentum 209
§8.3. The harmonic oscillator 212
§8.4. Abstract commutation 214
Chapter 9. One-dimensional Schrödinger operators 217
§9.1. Sturm–Liouville operators 217
§9.2. Weyl’s limit circle, limit point alternative 223
§9.3. Spectral transformations I 231
§9.4. Inverse spectral theory 238
§9.5. Absolutely continuous spectrum 242
§9.6. Spectral transformations II 245
§9.7. The spectra of one-dimensional Schrödinger operators 250
Chapter 10. One-particle Schrödinger operators 257
§10.1. Self-adjointness and spectrum 257
§10.2. The hydrogen atom 258
§10.3. Angular momentum 261
§10.4. The eigenvalues of the hydrogen atom 265
§10.5. Nondegeneracy of the ground state 272
Chapter 11. Atomic Schrödinger operators 275
§11.1. Self-adjointness 275
§11.2. The HVZ theorem 278
Chapter 12. Scattering theory 283
§12.1. Abstract theory 283
§12.2. Incoming and outgoing states 286
§12.3. Schrödinger operators with short range potentials 289

Part 3. Appendix
Appendix A. Almost everything about Lebesgue integration 295
§A.1. Borel measures in a nutshell 295
x Contents

§A.2. Extending a premeasure to a measure 303

§A.3. Measurable functions 307
§A.4. How wild are measurable objects? 309
§A.5. Integration — Sum me up, Henri 312
§A.6. Product measures 319
§A.7. Transformation of measures and integrals 322
§A.8. Vague convergence of measures 328
§A.9. Decomposition of measures 331
§A.10. Derivatives of measures 334
Bibliographical notes 341
Bibliography 345
Glossary of notation 349
Index 353
Preface

Overview

The present text was written for my course Schrödinger Operators held
at the University of Vienna in winter 1999, summer 2002, summer 2005,
and winter 2007. It gives a brief but rather self-contained introduction
to the mathematical methods of quantum mechanics with a view towards
applications to Schrödinger operators. The applications presented are highly
selective; as a result, many important and interesting items are not touched
upon.
Part 1 is a stripped-down introduction to spectral theory of unbounded
operators where I try to introduce only those topics which are needed for
the applications later on. This has the advantage that you will (hopefully)
not get drowned in results which are never used again before you get to
the applications. In particular, I am not trying to present an encyclopedic
reference. Nevertheless I still feel that the first part should provide a solid
background covering many important results which are usually taken for
granted in more advanced books and research papers.
My approach is built around the spectral theorem as the central object.
Hence I try to get to it as quickly as possible. Moreover, I do not take the
detour over bounded operators but I go straight for the unbounded case. In
addition, existence of spectral measures is established via the Herglotz rather
than the Riesz representation theorem since this approach paves the way for
an investigation of spectral types via boundary values of the resolvent as the
spectral parameter approaches the real line.

xi
xii Preface

Part 2 starts with the free Schrödinger equation and computes the free
resolvent and time evolution. In addition, I discuss position, momentum,
and angular momentum operators via algebraic methods. This is usu-
ally found in any physics textbook on quantum mechanics, with the only
difference being that I include some technical details which are typically
not found there. Then there is an introduction to one-dimensional mod-
els (Sturm–Liouville operators) including generalized eigenfunction expan-
sions (Weyl–Titchmarsh theory) and subordinacy theory from Gilbert and
Pearson. These results are applied to compute the spectrum of the hy-
drogen atom, where again I try to provide some mathematical details not
found in physics textbooks. Further topics are nondegeneracy of the ground
state, spectra of atoms (the HVZ theorem), and scattering theory (the Enß
method).

Prerequisites

I assume some previous experience with Hilbert spaces and bounded

linear operators which should be covered in any basic course on functional
analysis. However, while this assumption is reasonable for mathematics
students, it might not always be for physics students. For this reason there
is a preliminary chapter reviewing all necessary results (including proofs).
In addition, there is an appendix (again with proofs) providing all necessary
results from measure theory.

Literature

The present book is highly influenced by the four volumes of Reed and
Simon [49]–[52] (see also [16]) and by the book by Weidmann [70] (an ex-
tended version of which has recently appeared in two volumes [72], [73],
however, only in German). Other books with a similar scope are, for ex-
ample, [16], [17], [21], [26], [28], [30], [48], [57], [63], and [65]. For those
who want to know more about the physical aspects, I can recommend the
classical book by Thirring [68] and the visual guides by Thaller [66], [67].
Further information can be found in the bibliographical notes at the end.

Reader’s guide

There is some intentional overlap among Chapter 0, Chapter 1, and

Chapter 2. Hence, provided you have the necessary background, you can
start reading in Chapter 1 or even Chapter 2. Chapters 2 and 3 are key
Preface xiii

chapters, and you should study them in detail (except for Section 2.6 which
can be skipped on first reading). Chapter 4 should give you an idea of how
the spectral theorem is used. You should have a look at (e.g.) the first
section, and you can come back to the remaining ones as needed. Chapter 5
contains two key results from quantum dynamics: Stone’s theorem and the
RAGE theorem. In particular, the RAGE theorem shows the connections
between long-time behavior and spectral types. Finally, Chapter 6 is again
of central importance and should be studied in detail.
The chapters in the second part are mostly independent of each other
except for Chapter 7, which is a prerequisite for all others except for Chap-
ter 9.
If you are interested in one-dimensional models (Sturm–Liouville equa-
tions), Chapter 9 is all you need.
If you are interested in atoms, read Chapter 7, Chapter 10, and Chap-
ter 11. In particular, you can skip the separation of variables (Sections 10.3
and 10.4, which require Chapter 9) method for computing the eigenvalues of
the hydrogen atom, if you are happy with the fact that there are countably
many which accumulate at the bottom of the continuous spectrum.
If you are interested in scattering theory, read Chapter 7, the first two
sections of Chapter 10, and Chapter 12. Chapter 5 is one of the key prereq-
uisites in this case.

2nd edition

Several people have sent me valuable feedback and pointed out misprints
since the appearance of the first edition. All of these comments are of course
taken into account. Moreover, numerous small improvements were made
throughout. Chapter 3 has been reworked, and I hope that it is now more
accessible to beginners. Also some proofs in Section 9.4 have been simplified
(giving slightly better results at the same time). Finally, the appendix on
measure theory has also grown a bit: I have added several examples and
some material around the change of variables formula and integration of
radial functions.

Updates

The AMS is hosting a web page for this book at

http://www.ams.org/bookpages/gsm-157/
xiv Preface

where updates, corrections, and other material may be found, including a

link to material on my own web site:
http://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~gerald/ftp/book-schroe/

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Volker Enß for making his lecture notes [20] avail-
able to me. Many colleagues and students have made useful suggestions and
pointed out mistakes in earlier drafts of this book, in particular: Kerstin
Ammann, Jörg Arnberger, Chris Davis, Fritz Gesztesy, Maria Hoffmann-
Ostenhof, Zhenyou Huang, Helge Krüger, Katrin Grunert, Wang Lanning,
Daniel Lenz, Christine Pfeuffer, Roland Möws, Arnold L. Neidhardt, Serge
Richard, Harald Rindler, Alexander Sakhnovich, Robert Stadler, Johannes
Temme, Karl Unterkofler, Joachim Weidmann, Rudi Weikard, and David
Wimmesberger.
My thanks for pointing out mistakes in the first edition go to: Erik
Makino Bakken, Alexander Beigl, Stephan Bogendörfer, Søren Fournais,
Semra Demirel-Frank, Katrin Grunert, Jason Jo, Helge Krüger, Oliver Lein-
gang, Serge Richard, Gerardo González Robert, Bob Sims, Oliver Skocek,
Robert Stadler, Fernando Torres-Torija, Gerhard Tulzer, Hendrik Vogt, and
David Wimmesberger.
If you also find an error or if you have comments or suggestions
(no matter how small), please let me know.
I have been supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) during much
of this writing, most recently under grant Y330.

Gerald Teschl

Vienna, Austria
April 2014

Gerald Teschl
Fakultät für Mathematik
Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1
Universität Wien
1090 Wien, Austria

E-mail: [email protected]
URL: http://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~gerald/
Bibliographical notes

The aim of this section is not to give a comprehensive guide to the literature,
but to document the sources from which I have learned the materials and
which I have used during the preparation of this text. In addition, I will
point out some standard references for further reading. In some sense, all
books on this topic are inspired by von Neumann’s celebrated monograph
[74] and the present text is no exception.
General references for the first part are Akhiezer and Glazman [1],
Berthier (Boutet de Monvel) [10], Blank, Exner, and Havlı́ček [11], Ed-
munds and Evans [18], Lax [32], Reed and Simon [49], Weidmann [70],
[72], or Yosida [76].
Chapter 0: A first look at Banach and Hilbert spaces
As a reference for general background I can warmly recommend Kelly’s
classical book [33]. The rest is standard material and can be found in any
book on functional analysis.
Chapter 1: Hilbert spaces
The material in this chapter is again classical and can be found in any book
on functional analysis. I mainly follow Reed and Simon [49], respectively,
Weidmann [70], with the main difference being that I use orthonormal sets
and their projections as the central theme from which everything else is
derived. For an alternate problem-based approach, see Halmos’ book [27].
Chapter 2: Self-adjointness and spectrum
This chapter is still similar in spirit to [49], [70] with some ideas taken from
Schechter [57].

341
342 Bibliographical notes

Chapter 3: The spectral theorem

The approach via the Herglotz representation theorem follows Weidmann
[70]. However, I use projection-valued measures as in Reed and Simon [49]
rather than the resolution of the identity. Moreover, I have augmented the
discussion by adding material on spectral types and the connections with
the boundary values of the resolvent. For a survey containing several recent
results, see [35].
Chapter 4: Applications of the spectral theorem
This chapter collects several applications from various sources which I have
found useful or which are needed later on. Again, Reed and Simon [49] and
Weidmann [70], [73] are the main references here.
Chapter 5: Quantum dynamics
The material is a synthesis of the lecture notes by Enß [20], Reed and Simon
[49], [51], and Weidmann [73]. See also the book by Amrein [3]. There are
also close connections with operator semigroups and we refer to the classical
monograph by Goldstein [25] for further information.
Chapter 6: Perturbation theory for self-adjoint operators
This chapter is similar to [70] (which contains more results) with the main
difference being that I have added some material on quadratic forms. In
particular, the section on quadratic forms contains, in addition to the clas-
sical results, some material which I consider useful but was unable to find
(at least not in the present form) in the literature. The prime reference
here is Kato’s monumental treatise [29] and Simon’s book [58]. For fur-
ther information on trace class operators, see Simon’s classic [61]. The idea
to extend the usual notion of strong resolvent convergence by allowing the
approximating operators to live on subspaces is taken from Weidmann [72].
Chapter 7: The free Schrödinger operator
Most of the material is classical. Much more on the Fourier transform can
be found in Reed and Simon [50] or Grafakos [23].
Chapter 8: Algebraic methods
This chapter collects some material which can be found in almost any physics
textbook on quantum mechanics. My only contribution is to provide some
mathematical details. I recommend the classical book by Thirring [68] and
the visual guides by Thaller [66], [67].
Chapter 9: One-dimensional Schrödinger operators
One-dimensional models have always played a central role in understand-
ing quantum mechanical phenomena. In particular, general wisdom used to
say that Schrödinger operators should have absolutely continuous spectrum
plus some discrete point spectrum, while singular continuous spectrum is a
Bibliographical notes 343

pathology that should not occur in examples with bounded V [16, Sect. 10.4].
In fact, a large part of [52] is devoted to establishing the absence of sin-
gular continuous spectrum. This was proven wrong by Pearson, who con-
structed an explicit one-dimensional example with singular continuous spec-
trum. Moreover, after the appearance of random models, it became clear
that such types of exotic spectra (singular continuous or dense pure point)
are frequently generic. The starting point is often the boundary behaviour
of the Weyl m-function and its connection with the growth properties of
solutions of the underlying differential equation, the latter being known as
Gilbert and Pearson or subordinacy theory. One of my main goals is to give
a modern introduction to this theory. The section on inverse spectral theory
presents a simple proof for the Borg–Marchenko theorem (in the local ver-
sion of Simon) from Bennewitz [9]. Again, this result is the starting point of
almost all other inverse spectral results for Sturm–Liouville equations and
should enable the reader to start reading research papers in this area.
Other references with further information are the lecture notes by Weid-
mann [71] or the classical books by Coddington and Levinson [15], Levitan
[36], Levitan and Sargsjan [37], [38], Marchenko [40], Naimark [42], Pear-
son [46]. See also the recent monographs by Rofe-Betekov and Kholkin [55],
Zettl [77] or the recent collection of historic and survey articles [4]. A com-
pilation of exactly solvable potentials can be found in Bagrov and Gitman
[6, App. I]. For a nice introduction to random models I can recommend
the recent notes by Kirsch [34] or the classical monographs by Carmona
and Lacroix [13] or Pastur and Figotin [45]. For the discrete analog of
Sturm–Liouville and Jacobi operators, see my monograph [64].
Chapter 10: One-particle Schrödinger operators
The presentation in the first two sections is influenced by Enß [20] and
Thirring [68]. The solution of the Schrödinger equation in spherical coordi-
nates can be found in any textbook on quantum mechanics. Again I tried
to provide some missing mathematical details. Several other explicitly solv-
able examples can be found in the books by Albeverio et al. [2] or Flügge
[22]. For the formulation of quantum mechanics via path integrals I suggest
Roepstorff [54] or Simon [59].
Chapter 11: Atomic Schrödinger operators
This chapter essentially follows Cycon, Froese, Kirsch, and Simon [16]. For
a recent review, see Simon [60]. For multi-particle operators from the view-
point of stability of matter, see Lieb and Seiringer [41].
Chapter 12: Scattering theory
This chapter follows the lecture notes by Enß [20] (see also [19]) using some
material from Perry [47]. Further information on mathematical scattering
344 Bibliographical notes

theory can be found in Amrein, Jauch, and Sinha [5], Baumgaertel and
Wollenberg [7], Chadan and Sabatier [14], Cycon, Froese, Kirsch, and Simon
[16], Komech and Kopylova [31], Newton [43], Pearson [46], Reed and
Simon [51], or Yafaev [75].
Appendix A: Almost everything about Lebesgue integration
Most parts follow Rudin’s book [56], respectively, Bauer [8], with some ideas
also taken from Weidmann [70]. I have tried to strip everything down to the
results needed here while staying self-contained. Another useful reference
is the book by Lieb and Loss [39]. A comprehensive source are the two
volumes by Bogachev [12].
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[64] G. Teschl, Jacobi Operators and Completely Integrable Nonlinear Lattices, Math.
Surv. and Mon. 72, Amer. Math. Soc., Rhode Island, 2000.
348 Bibliography

[65] B. Thaller, The Dirac Equation, Springer, Berlin 1992.

[66] B. Thaller, Visual Quantum Mechanics, Springer, New York, 2000.
[67] B. Thaller, Advanced Visual Quantum Mechanics, Springer, New York, 2005.
[68] W. Thirring, Quantum Mechanics of Atoms and Molecules, Springer, New York,
1981.
[69] G. N. Watson, A Treatise on the Theory of Bessel Functions, 2nd ed., Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 1962.
[70] J. Weidmann, Linear Operators in Hilbert Spaces, Springer, New York, 1980.
[71] J. Weidmann, Spectral Theory of Ordinary Differential Operators, Lecture Notes
in Mathematics, 1258, Springer, Berlin, 1987.
[72] J. Weidmann, Lineare Operatoren in Hilberträumen, Teil 1: Grundlagen, B. G.
Teubner, Stuttgart, 2000.
[73] J. Weidmann, Lineare Operatoren in Hilberträumen, Teil 2: Anwendungen, B.
G. Teubner, Stuttgart, 2003.
[74] J. von Neumann, Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Princeton
University Press, Princeton, 1996.
[75] D. R. Yafaev, Mathematical Scattering Theory: General Theory, American Math-
ematical Society, Providence, 1992.
[76] K. Yosida, Functional Analysis, 6th ed., Springer, Berlin, 1980.
[77] A. Zettl, Sturm–Liouville Theory, American Mathematical Society, Providence,
2005.
Glossary of notation

AC(I) . . . absolutely continuous functions, 95

Br (x) . . . open ball of radius r around x, 4
B = B1
Bn . . . Borel σ-field of Rn , 296
C(H) . . . set of compact operators, 151
C . . . the set of complex numbers
C(U ) . . . set of continuous functions from U to C
C∞ (U ) . . . set of functions in C(U ) which vanish at ∞
C(U, V ) . . . set of continuous functions from U to V
Cc (U, V ) . . . set of compactly supported continuous functions
C ∞ (U, V ) . . . set of smooth functions
Cb (U, V ) . . . set of bounded continuous functions
χΩ (.) . . . characteristic function of the set Ω
dim . . . dimension of a vector space
dist(x, Y ) = inf y∈Y x − y, distance between x and Y
D(.) . . . domain of an operator
e . . . exponential function, ez = exp(z)
E(A) . . . expectation of an operator A, 63
F . . . Fourier transform, 187
H . . . Schrödinger operator, 257
H0 . . . free Schrödinger operator, 197
H m (a, b) . . . Sobolev space, 95
H0m (a, b) . . . Sobolev space, 96
H m (Rn ) . . . Sobolev space, 194
hull(.) . . . convex hull
H . . . a separable Hilbert space

349
350 Glossary of notation

i . . . complex unity, i2 = −1
I . . . identity operator
Im(.) . . . imaginary part of a complex number
inf . . . infimum
Ker(A) . . . kernel of an operator A, 27
L(X, Y ) . . . set of all bounded linear operators from X to Y , 29
L(X) = L(X, X)
Lp (X, dμ) . . . Lebesgue space of p integrable functions, 31
Lploc (X, dμ) . . . locally p integrable functions, 36
Lpc (X, dμ) . . . compactly supported p integrable functions
L∞ (X, dμ) . . . Lebesgue space of bounded functions, 32
L∞ n
∞ (R ) . . . Lebesgue space of bounded functions vanishing at ∞
p
 (N) . . . Banach space of p summable sequences, 15
2 (N) . . . Hilbert space of square summable sequences, 21
∞ (N) . . . Banach space of bounded summable sequences, 16
λ . . . a real number
ma (z) . . . Weyl m-function, 235
M (z) . . . Weyl M -matrix, 246
max . . . maximum
M . . . Mellin transform, 287
μψ . . . spectral measure, 108
N . . . the set of positive integers
N0 = N ∪ {0}
o(x) . . . Landau symbol little-o
O(x) . . . Landau symbol big-O
Ω . . . a Borel set
Ω± . . . wave operators, 283
PA (.) . . . family of spectral projections of an operator A, 108
P± . . . projector onto outgoing/incoming states, 286
Q . . . the set of rational numbers
Q(.) . . . form domain of an operator, 109
R(I, X) . . . set of regulated functions, 132
RA (z) . . . resolvent of A, 83
Ran(A) . . . range of an operator A, 27
rank(A) = dim Ran(A), rank of an operator A, 151
Re(.) . . . real part of a complex number
ρ(A) . . . resolvent set of A, 83
R . . . the set of real numbers
S(I, X) . . . set of simple functions, 132
S(Rn ) . . . set of smooth functions with rapid decay, 187
sign(x) = x/|x| for x = 0 and 0 for x = 0; sign function
Glossary of notation 351

σ(A) . . . spectrum of an operator A, 83

σac (A) . . . absolutely continuous spectrum of A, 119
σsc (A) . . . singular continuous spectrum of A, 119
σpp (A) . . . pure point spectrum of A, 119
σp (A) . . . point spectrum (set of eigenvalues) of A, 115
σd (A) . . . discrete spectrum of A, 170
σess (A) . . . essential spectrum of A, 170
span(M ) . . . set of finite linear combinations from M , 17
sup . . . supremum
supp(f ) . . . support of a function f , 8
supp(μ) . . . support of a measure μ, 301
Z . . . the set of integers
z . . . a complex number
√
z . . . square root of z with branch cut along (−∞, 0]
z∗ . . . complex conjugation
A∗ . . . adjoint of A, 67
A . . . closure of A, 72
fˆ = F f , Fourier transform of f , 187
fˇ =F −1
f , inverse Fourier transform of f , 189
n
|x| = j=1 |xj | Euclidean norm in R or C
2 n n

|Ω| . . . Lebesgue measure of a Borel set Ω

. . . . norm in the Hilbert space H, 21
.p . . . norm in the Banach space Lp , 30
., .. . . . scalar product in H, 21
Eψ (A) = ψ, Aψ, expectation value, 64
Δψ (A) = Eψ (A2 ) − Eψ (A)2 , variance, 64
Δ . . . Laplace operator, 197
∂ . . . gradient, 188
∂α . . . derivative, 187
⊕ . . . orthogonal sum of vector spaces or operators, 52, 89
⊗ . . . tensor product, 53, 143
M⊥ . . . orthogonal complement, 49
A
. . . complement of a set
(λ1 , λ2 ) = {λ ∈ R | λ1 < λ < λ2 }, open interval
[λ1 , λ2 ] = {λ ∈ R | λ1 ≤ λ ≤ λ2 }, closed interval
ψn → ψ . . . norm convergence, 14
ψn  ψ . . . weak convergence, 55
352 Glossary of notation

An →A . . . norm convergence
s
An →A . . . strong convergence, 57
An A . . . weak convergence, 56
nr
An →A . . . norm resolvent convergence, 179
sr
An →A . . . strong resolvent convergence, 179
Index

a.e., see also almost everywhere measure, 298

absolue value of an operator, 138 regular, 298
absolute convergence, 20 set, 296
absolutely continuous σ-algebra, 296
function, 95 transform, 107, 112
measure, 331 boundary condition
spectrum, 119 Dirichlet, 224
accumulation point, 4 Neumann, 224
adjoint operator, 54, 67 periodic, 224
algebra, 295 boundary point, 4
almost everywhere, 302 bounded
angular momentum operator, 210 operator, 27
sesquilinear form, 26
B.L.T. theorem, 28 set, 11
Baire category theorem, 38
ball C-real, 93
closed, 6 canonical form of compact operators,
open, 4 161
Banach algebra, 29 Cantor
Banach space, 14 function, 338
Banach–Steinhaus theorem, 39 measure, 339
base, 5 set, 302
basis, 17 Cauchy sequence, 7
orthonormal, 47 Cauchy–Schwarz–Bunjakowski
spectral, 106 inequality, 22
Bessel function, 204 Cayley transform, 91
modified, 202 Cesàro average, 150
spherical, 267 characteristic function, 312
Bessel inequality, 45 Chebyshev inequality, 339
bijective, 8 closable
Bolzano–Weierstraß theorem, 12 form, 80
Borel operator, 72
function, 308 closed

353
354 Index

ball, 6 closure, 117

form, 80 range, 84
operator, 72 spectrum, 170
set, 6 supremum, 32
closed graph theorem, 75 expectation, 63
closure, 6 Exponential Herglotz representation,
essential, 117 129
cluster point, 4 extension, 67
commute, 136 Extreme value theorem, 12
compact, 9
locally, 12 finite intersection property, 9
sequentially, 11 first resolvent formula, 85
complete, 7, 14 form, 80
completion, 26 bound, 175
configuration space, 64 bounded, 26, 82
conjugation, 93 closable, 80
conserved quantity, 138 closed, 80
continuous, 8 core, 81
convergence, 6 domain, 77, 109
convolution, 191 hermitian, 80
core, 71 nonnegative, 80
cover, 9 semi-bounded, 80
C ∗ algebra, 55 Fourier
cyclic vector, 106 series, 47
transform, 150, 187
dense, 7 Friedrichs extension, 80
dilation group, 259 Fubini theorem, 320
Dirac measure, 301, 317 function
Dirac operator, 149, 215 absolutely continuous, 95
Dirichlet boundary condition, 224 open, 8
discrete set, 4 fundamental theorem of calculus, 135,
discrete topology, 4 317
distance, 3, 12
distribution function, 298 gamma function, 328
Dollard theorem, 200 Gaussian wave packet, 209
domain, 27, 64, 66 gradient, 188
dominated convergence theorem, 316 Gram–Schmidt orthogonalization, 48
Dynkin system, 303 graph, 72
Dynkin’s π-λ theorem, 303 graph norm, 72
Green’s function, 202
eigenspace, 132 ground state, 272
eigenvalue, 83
multiplicity, 132 Hamiltonian, 65
eigenvector, 83 Hankel operator, 169
element Hankel transform, 203
adjoint, 55 harmonic oscillator, 212
normal, 55 Hausdorff space, 5
positive, 55 Heine–Borel theorem, 11
self-adjoint, 55 Heisenberg picture, 154
unitary, 55 Heisenberg uncertainty principle, 193
equivalent norms, 24 Hellinger–Toeplitz theorem, 76
essential Herglotz
Index 355

function, 107 linear

representation theorem, 120 functional, 29, 50
Hermite polynomials, 213 operator, 27
hermitian linearly independent, 17
form, 80 Liouville normal form, 222
operator, 67 localization formula, 279
Hilbert space, 21, 43 lower semicontinuous, 309
separable, 47
Hölder’s inequality, 16, 32 maximum norm, 14
homeomorphism, 8 Mean ergodic theorem, 155
HVZ theorem, 278 mean-square deviation, 64
hydrogen atom, 258 measurable
function, 307
ideal, 55 set, 297
identity, 29 space, 296
induced topology, 5 measure, 296
injective, 7 absolutely continuous, 331
inner product, 21 complete, 306
inner product space, 21 finite, 297
integrable, 315 growth point, 112
integral, 312 Lebesgue, 301
interior, 6 minimal support, 338
interior point, 4 mutually singular, 331
intertwining property, 284 product, 319
involution, 55 projection-valued, 100
ionization, 278 space, 297
isolated point, 4 spectral, 108
support, 301
Jacobi operator, 76
topological support, 301
Kato–Rellich theorem, 159 Mellin transform, 287
kernel, 27 metric space, 3
KLMN theorem, 175 Minkowski’s inequality, 32
Kuratowski closure axioms, 6 mollifier, 35
momentum operator, 208
λ-system, 303 monotone convergence theorem, 313
l.c., see also limit circle Morrey inequality, 196
l.p., see also limit point multi-index, 187
Lagrange identity, 218 order, 187
Laguerre polynomial, 267 multiplicity
generalized, 268 spectral, 107
Lebesgue mutually singular measures, 331
decomposition, 333
measure, 301 neighborhood, 4
point, 335 Neumann
Lebesgue–Stieltjes measure, 298 boundary condition, 224
Legendre equation, 262 function
lemma spherical, 267
Riemann-Lebesgue, 191 series, 85
Lidskij trace theorem, 168 Nevanlinna function, 107
limit circle, 223 Noether theorem, 208
limit point, 4, 223 norm, 14
Lindelöf theorem, 9 operator, 27
356 Index

norm resolvent convergence, 179 parallel, 22, 44

normal, 12, 55, 69, 76, 104 parallelogram law, 23
normalized, 22, 44 parity operator, 111
normed space, 14 Parseval relation, 47
nowhere dense, 38 partial isometry, 139
null space, 27 partition of unity, 13
perpendicular, 22, 44
observable, 63 phase space, 64
ONB, see also orthonormal basis π-system, 303
one-parameter unitary group, 65 Plücker identity, 222
ONS, see also orthonormal set Plancherel identity, 190
onto, 8 polar coordinates, 325
open polar decomposition, 139
ball, 4 polarization identity, 23, 45, 67
function, 8 position operator, 207
set, 4 positivity
operator improving, 272
adjoint, 54, 67 preserving, 272
bounded, 27 premeasure, 297
bounded from below, 79 probability density, 63
closable, 72 probability measure, 297
closed, 72 product measure, 319
closure, 72 product topology, 9
compact, 151 projection, 55
domain, 27, 66 proper metric space, 12
finite rank, 151 pseudometric, 3
hermitian, 67 pure point spectrum, 119
Hilbert–Schmidt, 163 Pythagorean theorem, 22, 44
linear, 27, 66
quadrangle inequality, 13
nonnegative, 77
quadratic form, 67, see also form
normal, 69, 76, 104 quasinorm, 20
positive, 77
relatively bounded, 157 Radon measure, 311
relatively compact, 152 Radon–Nikodym
self-adjoint, 68 derivative, 332
semi-bounded, 79 theorem, 332
strong convergence, 56 RAGE theorem, 153
symmetric, 67 Rajchman measure, 155
unitary, 45, 65 range, 27
weak convergence, 57 essential, 84
orthogonal, 22, 44 rank, 151
complement, 49 Rayleigh–Ritz method, 140
polynomials, 264 reducing subspace, 90
projection, 50 regulated function, 132
sum, 52 relative σ-algebra, 296
orthonormal relative topology, 5
basis, 47 relatively compact, 9, 152
set, 44 resolution of the identity, 101
orthonormal basis, 47 resolvent, 83
oscillating, 255 convergence, 179
outer measure, 304 formula
Index 357

first, 85 singularly continuous, 119

second, 159 spherical coordinates, 260, 325
Neumann series, 85 spherical harmonics, 263
set, 83 spherically symmetric, 194
Riesz lemma, 50 ∗-ideal, 55
Ritz method, 140 ∗-subalgebra, 55
stationary phase, 288
scalar product, 21 Stieltjes inversion formula, 107, 134
scattering operator, 284 Stone theorem, 147
scattering state, 284 Stone’s formula, 134
Schatten p-class, 165 Stone–Weierstraß theorem, 60
Schauder basis, 17 strong convergence, 56
Schrödinger equation, 65 strong resolvent convergence, 179
Schur criterion, 34 Sturm comparison theorem, 254
Schwartz space, 187 Sturm–Liouville equation, 217
second countable, 5 regular, 218
second resolvent formula, 159 subcover, 9
self-adjoint, 55 subordinacy, 243
essentially, 71 subordinate solution, 243
seminorm, 14 subspace
separable, 7, 18 reducing, 90
series subspace topology, 5
absolutely convergent, 20 superposition, 64
sesquilinear form, 21 supersymmetric quantum mechanics,
bounded, 26 215
parallelogram law, 25 support, 8
polarization identity, 26 measure, 301
short range, 289 surjective, 8
σ-algebra, 296
σ-finite, 297 Temple’s inequality, 142
simple function, 132, 312 tensor product, 53
simple spectrum, 107 theorem
singular values, 161 B.L.T., 28
singularly continuous Bair, 38
spectrum, 119 Banach–Steinhaus, 39
Sobolev space, 95, 194 Bolzano–Weierstraß, 12
span, 17 closed graph, 75
spectral Dollard, 200
basis, 106 dominated convergence, 316
ordered, 118 Dynkin’s π-λ, 303
mapping theorem, 118 Fatou, 314, 316
measure Fatou–Lebesgue, 316
maximal, 118 Fubini, 320
theorem, 109 fundamental thm. of calculus, 317
compact operators, 160 Heine–Borel, 11
vector, 106 Hellinger–Toeplitz, 76
maximal, 118 Herglotz, 120
spectrum, 83 HVZ, 278
absolutely continuous, 119 Jordan–von Neumann, 23
discrete, 170 Kato–Rellich, 159
essential, 170 KLMN, 175
pure point, 119 Kneser, 255
358 Index

Lebesgue, 316 Vandermonde determinant, 20

Lebesgue decomposition, 333 variance, 64
Levi, 313 virial theorem, 259
Lindelöf, 9 Vitali set, 303
monotone convergence, 313
Noether, 208 wave
Plancherel, 190 function, 63
Pythagorean, 22, 44 operators, 283
Radon–Nikodym, 332 wave equation, 148
RAGE, 153 weak
Riesz, 50 Cauchy sequence, 56
Schur, 34 convergence, 55
Sobolev embedding, 196 derivative, 96, 195
spectral, 109 Weierstraß approximation, 19
spectral mapping, 118 Weierstraß theorem, 12
Stone, 147 Weyl
Stone–Weierstraß, 60 M -matrix, 246
Sturm, 254 circle, 230
Tonelli, 321 relations, 208
Urysohn, 12 sequence, 86
virial, 259 singular, 171
Weidmann, 253 theorem, 171
Weierstraß, 12, 19 Weyl–Titchmarsh m-function, 235
Weyl, 171 Wiener covering lemma, 334
Wiener, 150, 194 Wiener theorem, 150
Tonelli theorem, 321 Wronskian, 218
topological space, 4 Young inequality, 191
topology
base, 5
product, 9
total, 18
trace, 167
class, 167
trace operator, 96
trace topology, 5
triangle inequality, 3, 14
inverse, 3, 14
trivial topology, 4
Trotter product formula, 155

uncertainty principle, 192, 208

uniform boundedness principle, 39
uniformly convex space, 25
unit sphere, 326
unit vector, 22, 44
unitary, 55, 65
unitary group, 65
generator, 65
strongly continuous, 65
weakly continuous, 147
upper semicontinuous, 309
Urysohn lemma, 12
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157 Gerald Teschl, Mathematical Methods in Quantum Mechanics: With Applications to
Schrödinger Operators, Second Edition, 2014
156 Markus Haase, Functional Analysis, 2014
155 Emmanuel Kowalski, An Introduction to the Representation Theory of Groups, 2014
154 Wilhelm Schlag, A Course in Complex Analysis and Riemann Surfaces, 2014
152 Gábor Székelyhidi, An Introduction to Extremal Kähler Metrics, 2014
151 Jennifer Schultens, Introduction to 3-Manifolds, 2014
150 Joe Diestel and Angela Spalsbury, The Joys of Haar Measure, 2013
149 Daniel W. Stroock, Mathematics of Probability, 2013
148 Luis Barreira and Yakov Pesin, Introduction to Smooth Ergodic Theory, 2013
147 Xingzhi Zhan, Matrix Theory, 2013
146 Aaron N. Siegel, Combinatorial Game Theory, 2013
145 Charles A. Weibel, The K-book, 2013
144 Shun-Jen Cheng and Weiqiang Wang, Dualities and Representations of Lie
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143 Alberto Bressan, Lecture Notes on Functional Analysis, 2013
142 Terence Tao, Higher Order Fourier Analysis, 2012
141 John B. Conway, A Course in Abstract Analysis, 2012
140 Gerald Teschl, Ordinary Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems, 2012
139 John B. Walsh, Knowing the Odds, 2012
138 Maciej Zworski, Semiclassical Analysis, 2012
137 Luis Barreira and Claudia Valls, Ordinary Differential Equations, 2012
136 Arshak Petrosyan, Henrik Shahgholian, and Nina Uraltseva, Regularity of Free
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135 Pascal Cherrier and Albert Milani, Linear and Quasi-linear Evolution Equations in
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134 Jean-Marie De Koninck and Florian Luca, Analytic Number Theory, 2012
133 Jeffrey Rauch, Hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations and Geometric Optics, 2012
132 Terence Tao, Topics in Random Matrix Theory, 2012
131 Ian M. Musson, Lie Superalgebras and Enveloping Algebras, 2012
130 Viviana Ene and Jürgen Herzog, Gröbner Bases in Commutative Algebra, 2011
129 Stuart P. Hastings and J. Bryce McLeod, Classical Methods in Ordinary Differential
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128 J. M. Landsberg, Tensors: Geometry and Applications, 2012
127 Jeffrey Strom, Modern Classical Homotopy Theory, 2011
126 Terence Tao, An Introduction to Measure Theory, 2011
125 Dror Varolin, Riemann Surfaces by Way of Complex Analytic Geometry, 2011
124 David A. Cox, John B. Little, and Henry K. Schenck, Toric Varieties, 2011
123 Gregory Eskin, Lectures on Linear Partial Differential Equations, 2011
122 Teresa Crespo and Zbigniew Hajto, Algebraic Groups and Differential Galois Theory,
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120 Qing Han, A Basic Course in Partial Differential Equations, 2011
119 Alexander Korostelev and Olga Korosteleva, Mathematical Statistics, 2011

For a complete list of titles in this series, visit the

AMS Bookstore at www.ams.org/bookstore/gsmseries/.
Quantum mechanics and the theory of operators on Hilbert space
have been deeply linked since their beginnings in the early twentieth
century. States of a quantum system correspond to certain elements
of the configuration space and observables correspond to certain
operators on the space. This book is a brief, but self-contained, intro-
duction to the mathematical methods of quantum mechanics, with a
view towards applications to Schrödinger operators.
Part 1 of the book is a concise introduction to the spectral theory
of unbounded operators. Only those topics that will be needed for later applications
are covered. The spectral theorem is a central topic in this approach and is introduced
at an early stage. Part 2 starts with the free Schrödinger equation and computes the
free resolvent and time evolution. Position, momentum, and angular momentum are
discussed via algebraic methods. Various mathematical methods are developed, which
are then used to compute the spectrum of the hydrogen atom. Further topics include
the nondegeneracy of the ground state, spectra of atoms, and scattering theory.
This book serves as a self-contained introduction to spectral theory of unbounded
operators in Hilbert space with full proofs and minimal prerequisites: Only a solid
knowledge of advanced calculus and a one-semester introduction to complex analysis
are required. In particular, no functional analysis and no Lebesgue integration theory
are assumed. It develops the mathematical tools necessary to prove some key results
in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics.
Mathematical Methods in Quantum Mechanics is intended for beginning graduate
students in both mathematics and physics and provides a solid foundation for reading
more advanced books and current research literature.
This new edition has additions and improvements throughout the book to make the
presentation more student friendly.
The book is written in a very clear and compact style. It is well suited for self-study and
includes numerous exercises (many with hints).
—Zentralblatt MATH

The author presents this material in a very clear and detailed way and supplements it by
numerous exercises. This makes the book a nice introduction to this exciting field of math-
ematics.
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