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Springer Proceedings in Physics 237

Bassano Vacchini
Heinz-Peter Breuer
Angelo Bassi Editors

Advances in Open
Systems and
Fundamental
Tests of Quantum
Mechanics
Proceedings of the 684. WE-Heraeus-
Seminar, Bad Honnef, Germany,
2–5 December 2018
Springer Proceedings in Physics

Volume 237
Indexed by Scopus
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More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/361


Bassano Vacchini Heinz-Peter Breuer
• •

Angelo Bassi
Editors

Advances in Open Systems


and Fundamental Tests
of Quantum Mechanics
Proceedings of the 684.
WE-Heraeus-Seminar, Bad Honnef, Germany,
2–5 December 2018

123
Editors
Bassano Vacchini Heinz-Peter Breuer
Dipartimento di Fisica Physikalisches Institut
Università degli Studi di Milano Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Milan, Italy Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Angelo Bassi
Department of Physics
University of Trieste
Trieste, Italy

ISSN 0930-8989 ISSN 1867-4941 (electronic)


Springer Proceedings in Physics
ISBN 978-3-030-31145-2 ISBN 978-3-030-31146-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31146-9
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
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Preface

Quantum mechanics has shown unprecedented success as a physical theory,


providing astonishing accurate predictions, but at the same time, it has forced upon
us a new perspective on the description of physical reality.
While Schrödinger’s equation applies to the dynamics of an isolated closed
system, the treatment of an open system setting appeared as an essential ingredient
in the very formulation and understanding of the theory since its very beginning.
Indeed, the very formulation of a measurement process, allowing to extract infor-
mation on the state of the system of interest, depends on the analysis of its inter-
action with an external system, typically with very different features, such as being
macroscopic or in a specially prepared initial state. The search for a more realistic
treatment of the measurement process as the result of the interaction between two
systems, ultimately to be both described by quantum mechanics, has lead to
important improvements in the formulation of quantum theory. A basic motivation
for the consideration of open quantum systems rests on the conceptually unfeasible,
and experimentally often too inaccurate, idealization of a perfect shielding of the
system of interest from the external environment. The development of the for-
malism of open quantum systems has also led to a deeper understanding of the very
structure and features of quantum mechanics. In particular, it sets the framework in
which any experiment testing the foundations of quantum mechanics or willing to
discriminate between quantum mechanics and alternative theories has to be con-
sidered. More recently also the notion of non-Markovian quantum stochastic pro-
cess has been the object of intense investigations. This seminar aims at reporting
about recent results in the foundations of open quantum systems and its connection
with the most advanced experiments testing the basic features of quantum
mechanics, from the microscopic to the macroscopic regime.
In recent years, important progress has been achieved both in the theory of open
quantum systems and in the experimental realization and control of such systems.
A great deal of the new results is concerned with the characterization and quan-
tification of quantum memory effects and with the extension of the standard
methods to the treatment of non-Markovian quantum processes. To this end, novel
mathematical methods and physical concepts have been developed. Examples

v
vi Preface

include the idea to quantify the exchange of information between the open system
and its environment in terms of the distinguishability of quantum states and to
interpret the backflow of information from the environment to the open system as
characteristic feature of quantum non-Markovianity. Another example is the idea to
characterize memory effects of quantum processes in open systems through the
concept of the divisibility of the corresponding quantum dynamical map. Both ideas
also lead to a quantification of the degree of memory effects in open quantum
systems. Experimental realization of non-Markovian quantum systems and mea-
surements of the degree of memory effects have been carried out in both photonic
and trapped ion systems. A further important research topic is the study of the
impact of classical or quantum system-environment correlations. Several general
schemes have been developed theoretically and implemented experimentally which
enable the detection of such correlations by means of only local operations acting
on the open system. Examples of applications are the experimental determination of
initial correlations in photonic systems and the local detection of quantum phase
transitions in trapped ion systems. In addition to these advances in the general
characterisation and classification as well as in the experimental detection and
control of quantum processes in open systems, there has been important conceptual
and technical progress in the analytical and numerical treatment of strongly coupled
non-Markovian systems. Relevant developments have also been put forward in the
microscopic modelling of such systems employing, for example, collision models
to derive large classes of physically admissible quantum master equations.
This volume collects some recent developments in the field of open quantum
systems and foundations of quantum mechanics that were the subject of the 684.
WE-Heraeus-Seminar on Advances in Open Systems and Fundamental Tests of
Quantum Mechanics. The event was generously funded by the Wilhelm und Else
Heraeus-Stiftung and took place in the beautiful environment of the Physikzentrum
in Bad Honnef, Germany, on December 2018.

Milan, Italy Bassano Vacchini


Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany Heinz-Peter Breuer
Trieste, Italy Angelo Bassi
Contents

1 Collapse Models: Main Properties and the State of Art


of the Experimental Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Matteo Carlesso and Sandro Donadi
2 Information Flow Versus Divisibility for Non-invertible
Dynamical Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Dariusz Chruściński, Ángel Rivas and Sagnik Chakraborty
3 Quantum Non-Markovian Collision Models from Colored-Noise
Baths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Dario Cilluffo and Francesco Ciccarello
4 Non-monotonic Population and Coherence Evolution
in Markovian Open-System Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
J. F. Haase, A. Smirne and S. F. Huelga
5 Revealing Correlations Between a System and an Inaccessible
Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Manuel Gessner and Heinz-Peter Breuer
6 Transient Synchronization in Open Quantum Systems . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Gian Luca Giorgi, Albert Cabot and Roberta Zambrini
7 Creation and Detection of Molecular Schrödinger Cat States:
Iodine in Cryogenic Krypton Observed via Four-Wave-Mixing
Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
David Picconi and Irene Burghardt

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

vii
Contributors

Heinz-Peter Breuer Physikalisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, Freiburg,


Germany
Irene Burghardt Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Goethe
University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Albert Cabot IFISC (UIB-CSIC), Instituto de Fisica Interdisciplinar y Sistemas
Complejos Universitat de les Illes Balears-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Cientificas, Palma, Spain
Matteo Carlesso Department of Physics, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy;
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Trieste, Italy
Sagnik Chakraborty Optics and Quantum Information Group, The Institute of
Mathematical Sciences, Taramani, Chennai, India
Dariusz Chruściński Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and
Informatics, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland
Francesco Ciccarello Dipartimento di Fisica e Chimica – Emilio Segré,
Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy;
NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR, Pisa, Italy
Dario Cilluffo Dipartimento di Fisica e Chimica – Emilio Segré, Università degli
Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy;
NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR, Pisa, Italy
Sandro Donadi Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), Frankfurt am
Main, Germany
Manuel Gessner Département de Physique, École Normale Supérieure, PSL
Université, CNRS, Paris, France
Gian Luca Giorgi IFISC (UIB-CSIC), Instituto de Fisica Interdisciplinar y
Sistemas Complejos Universitat de les Illes Balears-Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Cientificas, Palma, Spain

ix
x Contributors

J. F. Haase Institut für Theoretische Physik and IQST, Universität Ulm, Ulm,
Germany
S. F. Huelga Institut für Theoretische Physik and IQST, Universität Ulm, Ulm,
Germany
David Picconi Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Goethe University
Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Ángel Rivas Departamento de Física Teórica, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas,
Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain;
CCS-Center for Computational Simulation, Campus de Montegancedo UPM,
Madrid, Spain
A. Smirne Institut für Theoretische Physik and IQST, Universität Ulm, Ulm,
Germany
Roberta Zambrini IFISC (UIB-CSIC), Instituto de Fisica Interdisciplinar y
Sistemas Complejos Universitat de les Illes Balears-Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Cientificas, Palma, Spain
Chapter 1
Collapse Models: Main Properties
and the State of Art of the Experimental
Tests

Matteo Carlesso and Sandro Donadi

Abstract Collapse models represent one of the possible solutions to the


measurement problem. These models modify the Schrödinger dynamics with non-
linear and stochastic terms, which guarantee the localization in space of the wave
function avoiding macroscopic superpositions, like that described in Schrödinger’s
cat paradox. The Ghirardi–Rimini–Weber (GRW) and the Continuous Spontaneous
Localization (CSL) models are the most studied among the collapse models. Here,
we briefly summarize the main features of these models and the advances in their
experimental investigation.

1.1 Introduction

Quantum mechanics is the most precise theory we have for describing the micro-
scopic world. However, since its formulation, the theory never stopped to raise issues
regarding its meaning. In particular, the superposition principle does not seem to
apply to the macroscopic world. This raises the well-known measurement problem.
Collapse models provide a phenomenological solution to such a problem. These
models modify the Schrödinger equation by adding stochastic and nonlinear terms,
which implement the collapse of the wave function [1]. An in-built amplifica-
tion mechanism ensures that their action is negligible for microscopic systems and
becomes stronger when their mass increases thus providing a natural implementation
of the quantum-to-classical transition.
The most supported among collapse models are the Ghirardi–Rimini–Weber
(GRW) [2] and the Continuous Spontaneous Localization (CSL) models [3, 4]. Their

M. Carlesso (B)
Department of Physics, University of Trieste, Strada Costiera 11, 34151 Trieste, Italy
e-mail: [email protected]
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Via Valerio 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy
S. Donadi
Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), Ruth-Moufang-Strasse 1, 60438
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 1


B. Vacchini et al. (eds.), Advances in Open Systems and Fundamental
Tests of Quantum Mechanics, Springer Proceedings in Physics 237,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31146-9_1
2 M. Carlesso and S. Donadi

action is determined by two parameters: the collapse rate λ and the


correlation length of the noise rC . Different theoretical proposals for their numer-
ical value were suggested: λ = 10−16 s−1 and rC = 10−7 m by Ghirardi, Rimini, and
Weber [2]; λ = 10−8±2 s−1 for rC = 10−7 m, and λ = 10−6±2 s−1 for rC = 10−6 m by
Adler [5]. Since these models are phenomenological, the value of their parameters
can be bounded and eventually identified only by experiments.
The paper is organized as follows: in Sect. 1.2, we review the GRW model and
discuss its main features and how the model provides a solution to the measurement
problem. In Sect. 1.3, we introduce the CSL model and analyze its properties. In
Sects. 1.4 and 1.5, we briefly review the current experimental attempts to determine
the values of the parameters λ and rC . In Sect. 1.6, we discuss the dissipative and
non-Markovian generalizations of these models. Finally, in Sect. 1.7, we discuss
new proposals to set new bounds on these models.

1.2 The GRW Model

The Ghirardi–Rimini–Weber (GRW) model represents the first consistent model


where the dynamics induces spontaneous collapses in space. In the GRW model, the
wave function of any system is subject to random and spontaneous localizations in
space. These collapses are designed in such a way that one recovers the Born rule. Due
to an in-built amplification mechanism, the rate of collapses increases with the size
of the systems. This guarantees that macroscopic objects always have well-defined
positions. Conversely to other collapse models, as for the CSL model (cf. Sect. 1.3),
the GRW model is not formulated using stochastic differential equations,1 making
it ideal to intuitively explain the main features of collapse models.
The GRW model is defined by the following postulates:
1. Every physical system is subject to spontaneous localizations (i.e., collapses) in
space which take place at random times, following a Poisson distribution with
the mean rate given by2 λ.
2. The localization at the point a is described as

L̂ a |ψ
|ψ → , (1.1)
|| L̂ a |ψ||

where the localization operator L̂ a is given by

1 Itpossible to define the model also through a stochastic differential equation describing the inter-
action with a Poissonian noise, see [6, 7].
2 In their original formulation [2], Ghirardi, Rimini, and Weber considered the possibility that

different particles can have different collapse rate λi . However, this is not required and in literature
only one λ, representing the collapse rate for a nucleon, is considered. For composite objects, the
corresponding total collapse rate can be calculated through the amplification mechanism discussed
below.
1 Collapse Models: Main Properties and the State of Art of the Experimental Tests 3

2
− (q̂−a)
L̂ a = (πrC2 )−3/4 e .
2
2rC
(1.2)

3. The probability of having a localization at the point a is || L̂ a |ψ||2 .


4. When there are no localizations in space, the system evolves according to the
Schrödinger equation
d|ψ(t)
i = Ĥ |ψ(t). (1.3)
dt
We now show how localization works by means of a simple example. Consider a
one-dimensional system in a superposition of two states which are spatially localized
around the points a and −a with a  rC . Each state is represented by a wave packet
with a width smaller than rC . The total state reads Ψ (x) = ψa (x) + ψ−a (x). Let us
suppose that a collapse takes place around the point a. This amounts to multiplying
the wave function by a Gaussian centered in a with width rC and normalize the
resulting state, as dictated by postulate 2. Then, after the collapse, the branch of the
wave function ψ−a (x) is suppressed and the wave function of the particle is well
localized around a. This is how, starting from a delocalized wave function, we ended
up with a localized one. Note also that postulate 3 guarantees that the probability of
having a collapse around the points a or −a is, in a good approximation, 50%. More
generally, postulate 3 guarantees two fundamental properties: (i) in the limit of high
number of collapses we get the Born rule, and (ii) the master equation associated to
the GRW dynamics is linear (see [1] for details), which is a necessary condition to
guarantee the not faster-than-light signaling [8].
Together with the localizations, there is another fundamental feature required
in any collapse model: the amplification mechanism. The amplification mechanism
guarantees that, given a composite object, its center of mass localizes with a rate given
by the sum of the rates of localization of its elementary constituents. This implies
that quantum mechanics is still an excellent approximation for microscopic objects:
the collapses are so rare that their effects on the dynamics can be neglected for all
practical purposes. Conversely, the effective collapse rate for a macroscopic object
is large due to the amplification mechanism, and then any spatial superpositions is
rapidly suppressed.
To understand how the amplification mechanics works, let us consider a rigid
system composed of N particles in the following superposition state:

Ψ (x1 , . . . , x N ) = ψa (x1 , . . . , x N ) + ψ−a (x1 , . . . , x N ). (1.4)

Now, let us suppose that the jth particle collapses around a. As in the single-particle
case, this implies that Ψ gets multiplied by a Gaussian centered in a, namely,
( j)
L̂ a |Ψ 
|Ψ  → ( j)
, (1.5)
|| L̂ a |Ψ ||
4 M. Carlesso and S. Donadi

( j)  
with L̂ a = (πrC2 )−3/4 exp −(q̂ j − a)2 /2rC2 . Consequently, the ψ−a branch of the
superposition is suppressed. Since the collapses happen independently for any jth
particle, then the state in (1.4) collapses with an amplified rate Λ = N λ.

1.3 The CSL Model

In the GRW model, the collapse does not preserve the symmetry of the wave func-
tion implying that the model cannot describe identical particles. This limitation was
overcome with the CSL model, which was formulated using the second quantiza-
tion formalism. Thus, it automatically guarantees that its dynamics preserve the wave
function symmetry. In this model, the collapse is described by a nonlinear interaction
with a classical noise. The CSL equation reads [1]
 √ 
d|ψt  λ   
i 
= − Ĥ + dx M̂(x) − M̂(x) M̂(x) wt (x)
dt  m0 t
 (1.6)
λ   
 2
− 2 dx M̂(x) − M̂(x) M̂(x) |ψt  ,
2m 0 t

where |ψt  is the N particle wave function and Ĥ is the system Hamiltonian. Here
m 0 is a reference mass taken as that of a nucleon, and wt (x) is the noise providing the
collapse, characterized by E[wt (z)] = 0 and E[wt (z)ws (x)] = δ (3) (z − x)δ(t − s),
where E[ · ] denotes the stochastic average over the noise. The locally averaged mass
density operator is defined as

M̂(x) = mj dy g(x − y)â †j (y, s)â j (y, s), (1.7)
j s

where â †j (y, s) and â j (y, s) are, respectively, the creation and annihilation operators
of a particle of type j with spin s at the point y, while

(x−y)2
1 −
(2rC2 )
g(x − y) = 3/2
e , (1.8)
π 3/4 rC

is a smearing function imposing the spatial correlation of the collapses. Exactly as for
the GRW model, also in the CSL model, the wave function gets localized in space.
Indeed, the effect of the second and the third terms in (1.6) is to induce a localization
in the eigenstates of the operators M̂(x) [9], which are position eigenstates. The
mass proportionality of M̂(x) guarantees automatically the implementation of the
amplification mechanism.
Regarding the amplification mechanism, the mass proportionality of M̂(x) auto-
matically implements it. However, in CSL model, the amplification factor is different
1 Collapse Models: Main Properties and the State of Art of the Experimental Tests 5

compared to that in the GRW model. Indeed, in CSL, the amplification factor depends
on the shape of the considered system, and not just on the number N of its nucle-
ons. In the particular case of a rigid body, when its size is smaller than rC , we have
Λ = N 2 λ. Conversely, in the limit of rC smaller that the interparticle distance, the
amplification scales with Λ = N λ, which is the same as in the GRW model.
Working directly with (1.6) is in general problematic, because the equation is
nonlinear. However, as long as we are interested in computing expectation values,
we can replace the CSL dynamics with [9]
 √ 
d|ψt   λ
i = Ĥ − dx M̂(x)wt (x) |ψt  (1.9)
dt m0

which is a stochastic Schrödinger equation and is much simpler to handle.

1.4 Interferometric Experiments

We can divide the possible tests of collapse models in two classes of experiments:
interferometric and non-interferometric ones. Interferometric experiments are the
most natural choice of testing collapse models since they detect the direct action
of collapse models. One prepares a quantum system in a superposition state and
then measures the corresponding interference pattern. The collapse action will be
determined by the reduction of the interference contrast. Figure 1.1 summarizes the
state of the art of the bounds on the collapse parameters inferred from interferometric
experiments, where different bounds are shown: in green and in blue from cold
atoms [10] and molecular [11–14] interferometry, respectively, and in orange from
entanglement experiments with diamonds [15, 16]. By following the same reasoning,
one derives also which is the minimum action that collapse models should impose
to actually solve the measurement problem at the macroscopic level. Specifically,
a lower bound (gray area) is derived by requiring that a superposition of a single-
layered graphene disk of radius  10−5 m collapses in less than  10−2 s [12].

1.5 Non-interferometric Experiments

In the second class of possible tests of collapse models, one exploits an indirect effect:
the Brownian-like motion induced by the interaction of the collapse noise with the
considered system. This motion imposes a growth of the position variance of the
center of mass of the system, which can be eventually measured. Alternatively, if
the system is charged, one can measure the radiation emission due to its acceleration
given by such a motion. Since no superposition is involved in these experiments, one
can make use of systems of truly macroscopic dimensions. Indeed, due to the in-built
6 M. Carlesso and S. Donadi

Fig. 1.1 Exclusion plots for the CSL parameters from interferometric experiments with respect
to the GRW’s and Adler’s theoretically proposed values [2, 5]: molecular interferometry [11, 12]
(blue area), atom interferometry [10] (green area), and experiment with entangled diamonds [15,
16] (orange area). We report with the gray area the region excluded from theoretical arguments
[12]. M, d, and T refer, respectively, to the mass, the superposition distance involved and the time
of each experiment

amplification mechanism, the collapse effect becomes stronger and thus easier to be
detected. However, larger systems are also more affected by environmental noises,
which compete with that due to the collapses. Thus, to impose strong bounds on CSL
parameters, one seeks for a large mass in an experiment that should be as noiseless
as possible.
Figure 1.2 summarizes the state of the art in this class of experiments, which
includes experiments involving cold atoms [17, 18], optomechanical systems [19–
28], X-ray measurements [29, 30], and phonon excitations in crystals [31, 32], and
planetary observations [33].
Of particular interest is the nanomechanical cantilever experiment described in
[21], where an excess noise of known origin was detected. Its value is compatible
with that predicted by the CSL model with—up to date—still non-excluded values
of the CSL parameters. Several standard mechanisms, able to describe such excess
noise, were considered and excluded. An eventual identification of such noise to a
standard source will improve the bound of the experiment in [21] of one order of
magnitude in λ, see the two orange upper bounds contouring the top gray area in
Fig. 1.2.
1 Collapse Models: Main Properties and the State of Art of the Experimental Tests 7

Fig. 1.2 Exclusion plots for the CSL parameters from non-interferometric experiments: cold
atoms [18] (orange area); nanomechanical cantilevers [20, 21] (purple and gray-orange bounded
areas); gravitational wave detectors AURIGA, LIGO, and LISA Pathfinder [26, 27, 34] (red, blue,
and green areas, respectively); X-ray measurements [29, 30] (light blue area); and phonon exci-
tations in crystals [31, 32] (red line). Similar bounds can be also found from planetary observa-
tions [33]. M and T refer, respectively, to the mass and the time of the experiment

1.6 Generalization of GRW and CSL Models

There are some limitations on the regime of validity of GRW and CSL models. To
make an example, both models are non-relativistic. Possible relativistic extensions
have been suggested for the GRW model in [35] as well as for the CSL model in [36].
Moreover, GRW and CSL models have other two weaknesses. The first is the
presence of a steady increase in the energy of any system in time, the second is the
use of a white (flat) noise. Here, we discuss how such limitations can be evaded.

1.6.1 Dissipative CSL Model

In the CSL model, the energy of any system is not conserved due to the interaction
with the noise inducing the collapse. In the case of a free single particle, one has [1]

3mλ2
 Ĥ t =  Ĥ 0 + t. (1.10)
4m 20 rC2

The energy of the system grows indefinitely in time. For example, a hydrogen atom is
heated by  10−14 K per year considering the values λ = 10−16 s−1 and rC = 10−7 m.
Although the increment is small, this feature is not realistic even for a phenomenolog-
ical model. Here, the CSL noise acts as an infinite temperature bath. Conversely, one
8 M. Carlesso and S. Donadi

expects that a system will eventually thermalize at the finite temperature of the noise.
The introduction of dissipation precisely guarantees this. Indeed, in the dissipative
CSL model, (1.10) becomes

 Ĥ t = e−χt  Ĥ 0 − H as + H as , (1.11)

4km λ 2 2
 2
with χ = (1+k) 5 m 2 and H as = 16kmr 2 , where k = 8mk r 2 T
3
. Here, T CSL is a new
0 C B C CSL
parameter representing the effective temperature of the noise. Theoretical arguments
suggest T CSL = 1 K.
For a detailed discussion on the dissipative extension of the CSL (and GRW)
model, the reader can refer to [6, 37]. Here, we give an intuition on how dissipation
is included in the model. Consider the Fourier transform of the localization operators
in the CSL and the dissipative CSL model. They are given, respectively, by
 rC2
mj
dP dQ e−  Q·y e− 22 Q â †j (P + Q)â j (P),
i 2
M̂(y) = (1.12)
j
(2π )3

and
 rC2
mj
dP dQe−  Q·y e− 22 |(1+k j )Q+2k j P| â †j (P + Q)â j (P).
i 2
M̂ D (y) =
j
(2π )3
(1.13)
Here, the action of the operator â †j (P + Q)â j (P) is to destroy a particle with momen-
tum P and to create another one with momentum P + Q, i.e., to transfer a momentum
Q to the system. In the CSL model, the distribution of the transferred momentum Q
is a Gaussian centered around zero and it does not depend on the system momentum
P. This is the reason why the noise keeps heating the system indefinitely. On the
contrary, in the dissipative CSL model, the distribution of the possible transferred
momentum is centered around a point proportional to −P. In this way, the energy of
any system approaches an asymptotic finite value in the longtime regime.
Figure 1.3 shows the upper bounds of the dissipative CSL extension for different
values of T CSL . For a more detailed analysis on the current bounds of the dissipative
CSL model, the reader may refer to [12, 14, 18, 38].

1.6.2 Colored CSL Model

The second limitation of the CSL model is that the noise inducing the collapse
is white. While this can be a good approximation in certain regimes, no real
noise is expected to be completely white. In particular, it is reasonable that for
high enough frequencies the spectrum of the noise presents a cutoff Ω C , whose
inverse denotes a characteristic correlation time of the noise. Then, it is important to
verify if the presence of a non-white noise affects the model, in particular whether the
localization and amplification mechanism are still working. A detailed and analysis
1 Collapse Models: Main Properties and the State of Art of the Experimental Tests 9

Fig. 1.3 First and second panels: Upper bounds on the dissipative CSL parameters λ and rC
for two values of the CSL noise temperature: T CSL = 1 K (first panel) and T CSL = 10−7 K (second
panel). Third and fourth panels: Upper bounds on the colored CSL parameters λ and rC for
two values of the frequency cutoff: Ω c = 1015 Hz (third panel) and Ω c = 1 Hz (fourth panel).
Red, blue, and green lines (and respective shaded regions): Upper bounds (and exclusion regions)
from AURIGA, LIGO, and LISA Pathfinder, respectively [26]. Purple region: Upper bound from
cantilever experiment [21]. Orange and gray top regions: Upper bound from cold atom experiment
[17, 18] and from bulk heating experiments [31]. The bottom area shows the excluded region based
on theoretical arguments [12]

for generic collapse equations can be found in [9, 39]. In general, one can prove that
both the aforementioned mechanism work. Regarding the predictions of the model,
one derives a stochastic Schrödinger equation with the same form as (1.9) where
the noise wt (x) is substituted by a noise ξt (x) with zero average and correlation
E[ξt (z)ξs (x)] = δ (3) (z − x) f (t, s). Here, f (t, s) denotes the time correlation func-
tion. Note that, contrary to the white noise case where the equation is exact, when
working with colored noise, (1.9) is given by a first-order expansion in λ. Since the
noise effects are typically small, a perturbative treatment is generally sufficient.
10 M. Carlesso and S. Donadi

Some experiments are more sensible than others when a colored noise is intro-
duced. For example, the predictions from radiation emission are sensibly modified.
Indeed, already a cutoff smaller than the order of ∼ 1021 Hz suppresses the cor-
responding bound [40–42] Bounds on the CSL parameters for colored noise were
studied in detail in [12, 18, 43]. In particular, one finds out that the upper bounds
from experiments at high frequencies (or involving small time scales) are weakened
more and more when moving to smaller value of Ω C . Theoretical arguments suggest
Ω C ∼ 1012 Hz. Figure 1.3 shows the upper bounds to the colored CSL extension for
different values of Ω C .

1.7 Proposals for Future Testing

To confirm or falsify the possibility that the excess noise measured in [21] is actu-
ally the effect of a collapse mechanism, one needs to consider new experimental
techniques for an independent inquiry.
One possible test consists of focusing on the rotational degrees of freedom of
a system and its collapse-induced Brownian motion [34, 44]. It turns out that for
truly macroscopic systems, this technique can provide a sensible improvement of the
bounds on the collapse parameters, cf. Fig. 1.4. A direct application was considered
in [34], where the bound from LISA Pathfinder [26] can be significantly improved
by considering also the rotational degrees of freedom.
Another proposal [45] considered a modification of the cantilever experiment in
[21] where the homogeneous mass is substituted with one made of several layers of
two different materials. This will increment the CSL noise for the values of rC of the
order of the thickness of the layers. An example is shown in Fig. 1.4.
These are just two of the several proposals [46–50] suggested over the last years
to push the exploration of the CSL parameter space.

1.8 Conclusions

We discussed how collapse models provide a solution to the measurement problem.


They modify the Schrödinger dynamics introducing a spatial collapse of the wave
function. We focused in particular on the most relevant collapse models, which are
the GRW and the CSL model. We discussed their main properties and the status of
the experimental bounds on their phenomenological parameters λ and rC (Figs. 1.1
and 1.2). In particular, non-interferometric experiments provide the strongest tests
of collapse models. They extend over a broad set of possible systems, which differ
in size, form, materials, degrees of freedom, and much more. Moreover, we consid-
ered the dissipative and colored noise extensions of the CSL model. Also in these
cases, non-interferometric tests are the most relevant for the experimental investiga-
tion (Fig. 1.3). Finally, we present several non-interferometric proposals that were
suggested to push further the exploration of collapse models (Fig. 1.4).
1 Collapse Models: Main Properties and the State of Art of the Experimental Tests 11

Fig. 1.4 Exemplification of two possible experimental tests of collapse models. First panel: Results
of the analysis proposed in [34, 44] where the rotational degrees of freedom of a cylinder are
studied. The red line denotes the upper bound that can be obtained from the constraints given by
the rotational motion, compared with those from the translations (blue and green lines). Second
panel: Red shaded area highlights the hypothetical excluded value of the collapse parameters that
could be to derived from the conversion of the translational noise of LISA Pathfinder to rotational
one [34]. This is compared to the new (old) upper bounds from the translational motion shown
with the blue line [34] (gray area [26]). Third panels: Hypothetical upper bounds obtained from
substituting the sphere attached to the cantilever used in [21] with a multilayer cuboid of the same
mass for various thickness of the layers [45]. The bounds are compared with that from the improved
cantilever experiment [21] shown in orange. Fourth panel: Same as the third panel, but with a mass
ten times larger

Acknowledgements MC acknowledges the financial support from the H2020 FET Project TEQ
(grant n.766900) and the support from the COST Action QTSpace (CA15220), INFN and the Uni-
versity of Trieste. SD acknowledges the financial support from the Fetzer Franklin Foundation and
the support from the COST Action QTSpace (CA15220) and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced
Studies (FIAS). Both the authors are grateful for the support offered by the WE-Heraeus-Stiftung for
the WE-Heraeus-Seminars entitled “Advances in open systems and fundamental tests of quantum
mechanics”.
12 M. Carlesso and S. Donadi

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Chapter 2
Information Flow Versus Divisibility
for Non-invertible Dynamical Maps

Dariusz Chruściński, Ángel Rivas and Sagnik Chakraborty

Abstract We study the equivalence between information flow and completely


positive divisibility—the two main approaches to Markovianity in quantum regime.
Such equivalence is well known to hold for maps which are invertible. For non-
invertible maps, the problem is more subtle. We show that for a class of so-called
image non-increasing dynamical maps, the equivalence still holds true. Moreover,
for qubit dynamics we show that the equivalence is universal, thus providing a com-
prehensive theory of quantum Markovianity at least for two dimensions. In the course
of our proofs, we found certain mathematical restrictions on existence and impossi-
bility of existence of completely positive trace-preserving projectors onto subspaces
of finite-dimensional operator space. We illustrate our results with appropriate exam-
ples.

2.1 Introduction

Dynamics of open quantum systems attracts a lot of attention [1–3]. Theory of open
quantum systems provides an effective tool to describe the evolution of a quan-
tum system interacting with environment. One of the key questions posed recently

D. Chruściński
Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics,
Nicolaus Copernicus University, Grudzia̧dzka 5/7, 87–100 Toruń, Poland
e-mail: [email protected]
Á. Rivas (B)
Departamento de Física Teórica, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas,
Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain
e-mail: [email protected]
CCS-Center for Computational Simulation, Campus de Montegancedo UPM,
28660 Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain
S. Chakraborty
Optics and Quantum Information Group, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences,
C. I. T. Campus, Taramani, Chennai 600113, India

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 15


B. Vacchini et al. (eds.), Advances in Open Systems and Fundamental
Tests of Quantum Mechanics, Springer Proceedings in Physics 237,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31146-9_2
16 D. Chruściński et al.

is a characterization of quantum (non)Markovianity. The property of Markovian


processes is well understood in classical physics. However, in the quantum physics,
the notion of Markovianity is much more subtle, and there are several approaches to
this problem (see recent reviews [4–7]).
The two main approaches to quantum non-Markovianity, which turned out to be
very influential, are based on the concept of CP-divisibility [8] and information flow
[9]. In order to formulate them, we assume that the time evolution of a quantum
system is represented by a dynamical map Λt (t ≥ 0), that is, Λt is a family of
completely positive (CP) and trace-preserving (TP) maps acting on the space T (H)
of trace class√operators in the Hilbert space H (an operator X is trace class iff X 1 :=
Tr|X | = Tr X X † < ∞). The application t → Λt is assumed to be continuous in
the topology defined by the trace norm.
Definition 2.1 One calls the map Λt divisible if it can be decomposed as

Λt = Vt,s Λs , (2.1)

where Vt,s : T (H) → T (H) is a linear map for every t ≥ s. Moreover, one calls Λt
P-divisible if Vt,s is positive trace-preserving (PTP) for all t ≥ s, and CP-divisible
if Vt,s is completely positive trace-preserving (CPTP) for all t ≥ s.
According to [8], the evolution represented by Λt is Markovian iff the corresponding
dynamical map Λt is CP-divisible. A different approach identifies the presence of
memory effects with an information backflow between the system and environment.
This can be implemented in terms of the function

d
σ (ρ1 , ρ2 , t) = Λt ρ1 − Λt ρ2 1 , (2.2)
dt
which depends on two different initial states ρ1 and ρ2 . Following [9], Markovian
evolution is characterized by σ (ρ1 , ρ2 , t) ≤ 0. Whenever σ (ρ1 , ρ2 , t) > 0, one says
there is information backflow from environment back to the system. In this case,
the evolution displays clearly nontrivial memory effects and is classified as non-
Markovian.
These two notions of quantum non-Markovianity are very much related but not
strictly equivalent [10–14]. In this paper, we carefully analyze the relation between
these approaches.

2.2 Divisibility Versus No Information Backflow: Invertible


Maps

It is clear that if Λt is invertible, i.e., Λ−1


t exists for any t, then it is necessarily
divisible since
Vt,s := Λt Λ−1
s (2.3)
2 Information Flow Versus Divisibility for Non-invertible Dynamical Maps 17

is well defined on T (H). It should be stressed that even if Λt is invertible for all
t > 0 the inverse needs not be completely positive, but it is always trace-preserving.
Actually, one has the following.
Proposition 2.1 ([17]) Let Φ : T (H) → T (H) be a CPTP map. Then the inverse
Φ −1 is CPTP iff
Φ(X ) = U XU † , (2.4)

for some unitary U : H → H. If we allow that Φ is a positive trace-preserving map,


then Φ −1 is PTP iff Φ is given by (2.4) or

Φ(X ) = U X T U † . (2.5)

The connection between information backflow and divisibility properties starts with
the following theorem.
Theorem 2.1 ([10]) Suppose that Λt is invertible for all t > 0. Then it is P-divisible
if and only if
d
Λt (X )1 ≤ 0, (2.6)
dt

for any X ∈ T (H).


This theorem is a consequence of the following lemma.
Lemma 2.1 ([15]) Consider a linear map Φ : T (H) → T (H) which is trace-
preserving and Hermiticity-preserving. Then Φ is positive if and only if

Φ(X )1 ≤ X 1 , (2.7)

for all X † = X .
Then, the proof of Theorem 1 is as follows. One has

d 1 
Λt (X )1 = lim Λt+ (X )1 − Λt (X )1
dt →0+ 
1 
= lim Vt+,t Λt (X )1 − Λt (X )1 . (2.8)
→0+ 

Now, if Λt is P-divisible, that is, Vt,s is PTP for t ≥ s, because of Lemma 1,

Vt+,t Λt (X )1 ≤ Λt (X )1 (2.9)

and hence
d
Λt (X )1 ≤ 0. (2.10)
dt
Conversely, if (2.6) is satisfied, then (2.8) implies
18 D. Chruściński et al.

Vt+,t Λt (X )1 ≤ Λt (X )1 , (2.11)

for all X and  > 0. But since Λt is invertible, it is equivalent to

Vt+,t (Y )1 ≤ Y 1 , (2.12)

for all Y ∈ T (H) and by Lemma 1 the map Vt+,t is positive which ends the
proof. 
This result can be immediately generalized for k-divisible maps [16]. These are
dynamical maps such that idk ⊗ Vt,s is PTP on the space Mk (C) ⊗ T (H), where
Mk (C) is the space of k × k matrices with complex entries, and idk denotes the
identity map on this space. Therefore, 1-divisibility is the same as P-divisibility, and
CP-divisibility means k-divisibility for all k. For finite dimension dim T (H) = d <
∞, Λt is CP-divisible iff it is d-divisible.

Theorem 2.2 ([16]) Suppose that Λt is invertible for all t > 0. Then it is k-divisible
if and only if
d
[idk ⊗ Λt ](X )1 ≤ 0, (2.13)
dt

for any Hermitian X ∈ Mk (C) ⊗ T (H).

Clearly, taking X = ρ1 − ρ2 one recovers original condition [9] for no backflow of


information. In this case, one has Tr X = 0. Actually, Bylicka et al. [12] have proved
the following result.

Theorem 2.3 ([12]) Suppose that Λt is invertible for all t > 0. If dim T (H) = d 2 ,
then it is C P-divisible if and only if
d
[idd+1 ⊗ Λt ](X )1 ≤ 0, (2.14)
dt

for X = ρ1 − ρ2 ∈ Md+1 (C) ⊗ T (H).

This result shows that one may restrict to the original scenario X = ρ1 − ρ2 but the
price one pays is a use of (d + 1)-dimensional ancilla instead of d-dimensional one.

2.3 Divisibility Versus Information Backflow:


Non-invertible Maps

For dynamical maps Λt which are not invertible, the relation between divisibility
properties and information backflow becomes considerably more intricate. Note that
for a non-invertible dynamical map Λt , the existence of Vt,s is not guaranteed for all
pairs t > s. We shall consider here just the finite-dimensional case. Then, one proves
the following proposition.
2 Information Flow Versus Divisibility for Non-invertible Dynamical Maps 19

Proposition 2.2 ([14]) A dynamical map Λt is divisible iff

Ker(Λt ) ⊇ Ker(Λs ), (2.15)

for any t > s.


One should notice that if Λt is invertible, then Vt,s exists and it is always trace-
preserving on the entire T (H). This is no longer true for non-invertible maps. In
such a case even if Vt,s exists, that is, the map is divisible, it is necessarily trace-
preserving only on the range of Λs and need not be trace-preserving on the entire
T (H). Indeed, if Y ∈ Im(Λs ), then

Vt,s (Y ) := Λt (X ), (2.16)

where X is any operator such that Y = Λs (X ). Thus, Vt,s is well defined: if Λs (X ) =


Y , then Λt (X ) = Λt (X ) due to the fact that X − X ∈ Ker(Λs ) ⊆ Ker(Λt ). Now,
TrY = Tr X and hence

Tr[Vt,s (Y )] = Tr[Λt (X )] = Tr X = TrY. (2.17)

However, if Y is not an element from the image of Λs , the preservation of trace is


not guaranteed.
Proposition 2.3 If the dynamical map Λt satisfies

d
Λt (X )1 ≤ 0, (2.18)
dt

for all Hermitian X ∈ T (H), then Λt is divisible.


Proof Suppose that (2.18) is satisfied but Λt is not divisible, that is, there exists X
such that Λs X = 0 but Λt X = 0 (t > s). This shows Λt (X )1 > 0 = Λs (X )1
and hence Λt (X )1 does not monotonically decrease.
Hence, condition (2.18) implies the existence of some Vt,s : T (H) → T (H) such
that Λt = Vt,s Λs for all t ≥ s, However, Vt,s is uniquely defined just on the image of
Λs due to (2.16). Therefore, there are many possible choices for Vt,s as a map from
T (H) on T (H). All of them have the same action on Im(Λs ), which clearly defines
a linear subspace of T (H) that is closed under Hermitian conjugation. One has the
following result.
Lemma 2.2 Let M ⊂ T (H) be a linear subspace closed under Hermitian conjuga-
tion. Consider a trace-preserving linear map Φ : M → T (H). If Φ is a contraction
in the trace norm, then it is positive.
Take arbitrary X ≥ 0 from M. One has X 1 = Tr X . Now, since Φ is trace-
preserving Tr X = Tr[Φ(X )] ≤ Tr|Φ(X )| = Φ(X )1 . Finally, since Φ is a con-
traction Φ(X )1 ≤ X 1 , and hence it implies
20 D. Chruściński et al.

Φ(X )1 = Tr[Φ(X )], (2.19)

which proves that Φ(X ) ≥ 0. 

Corollary 2.1 If the dynamical map Λt satisfies

d
[idd ⊗ Λt ](X )1 ≤ 0, (2.20)
dt

for all Hermitian X ∈ T (H) ⊗ T (H), then Λt is divisible and Vt,s : Im(Λs ) →
T (H) defines a completely positive trace-preserving map.

Note that (2.20) implies that Vt,s can be defined on the entire space T (H). However,
Vt,s is CPTP only on Im(Λs ), i.e.,

[idd ⊗ Vt,s ](X ) ≥ 0, (2.21)

for positive X ∈ Md (C) ⊗ Im(Λs ).

2.4 Extension Theorem

From the discussion in the previous section, we conclude that, for non-invertible
dynamics, the condition for no information backflow implies the existence of maps
Vt,s which are CPTP on Im(Λs ). The question is whether or not one of such propaga-
tors Vt,s can be chosen to be CPTP on the entire T (H). In other words, the problem
we face is how to extend the propagator Vt,s as a map defined on Im(Λs ) to the entire
space T (H) such that it is CPTP on T (H). This extension problem was already
studied both in mathematics and physics [17–19].

Theorem 2.4 (Arveson) Let Φ : S → B(H) be a unital completely positive map


 : B(H) →
defined on an operator system S. Then there exists a unital CP extension Φ
B(H).

This theorem can not be directly applied in our case since the map Vt,s is not unital
and the subspace Im(Λs ) does not define an operator system. Namely, Im(Λs ) does
not always contain the identity element of T (H). Nevertheless, there is a variant of
this theorem closer to our situation.

Theorem 2.5 ([20]) Let Φ : M → T (H) be a CPTP map defined on a linear


subspace M spanned by positive operators. Then there exists a CP extension
 : T (H) → T (H).
Φ

This result can be directly applied to our problem since the subspace Im(Λs ) is
spanned by positive operators (density matrices). However, note that Theorem 2.5
does not guarantee that the extension is also trace-preserving.
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Title: The Normans in European history

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE


NORMANS IN EUROPEAN HISTORY ***
THE NORMANS IN EUROPEAN
HISTORY
THE NORMANS IN
EUROPEAN HISTORY
BY
CHARLES HOMER HASKINS
GURNEY PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY

BOSTON AND NEW YORK


HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY CHARLES HOMER HASKINS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE


THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM

Published October 1915


TO MY WIFE
PREFACE
THE eight lectures which are here published were delivered before
the Lowell Institute in February, 1915, and at the University of
California the following July, and it has seemed best to print them in
the form in which they were prepared for a general audience. Their
purpose is not so much to furnish an outline of the annals of Norman
history as to place the Normans in relation to their time and to
indicate the larger features of their work as founders and organizers
of states and contributors to European culture. Biographical and
narrative detail has accordingly been subordinated in the effort to
give a general view of Norman achievement in France, in England,
and in Italy. Various aspects of Norman history have been treated
with considerable fullness by historians, but, so far as I am aware, no
connected account of the whole subject has yet been attempted from
this point of view. This fact, it is hoped, may justify the publication of
these lectures, as well as explain the omission of many topics which
would naturally be treated in an extended narrative.
This book rests partly upon the writings of the various scholars
enumerated in the bibliographical note at the end of each chapter,
partly upon prolonged personal investigations, the results of which
have appeared in various special periodicals and will, in part, soon
be collected into a volume of Studies in Norman Institutions. When it
seemed appropriate in the text, I have felt at liberty to draw freely
upon the more general portions of these articles, leaving more
special and critical problems for discussion elsewhere.
I wish to thank the authorities of the Lowell Institute and the
University of California, and to acknowledge helpful criticism from my
colleague Professor William S. Ferguson and from Mr. George W.
Robinson, Secretary of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of
Harvard University. My indebtedness to Norman scholars and
Norman scholarship is deeper and more personal than any list of
their names and writings can indicate.
Charles H. Haskins.
Cambridge, Mass.
August, 1915.
CONTENTS
I. NORMANDY AND ITS PLACE IN HISTORY 1
II. THE COMING OF THE NORTHMEN 26
III. NORMANDY AND ENGLAND 52
IV. THE NORMAN EMPIRE 85
V. NORMANDY AND FRANCE 116
VI. NORMAN LIFE AND CULTURE 148
VII. THE NORMANS IN THE SOUTH 192
VIII. THE NORMAN KINGDOM OF SICILY 218
INDEX 251
THE NORMANS IN EUROPEAN
HISTORY

I
NORMANDY AND ITS PLACE IN HISTORY

IN June, 1911, at Rouen, Normandy celebrated the one-thousandth


anniversary of its existence. Decorated with the grace and simplicity of
which only a French city is capable, the Norman capital received with
equal cordiality the descendants of the conquerors and the conquered
—Norwegians and Swedes, Danes of Denmark and Danes of Iceland,
Normans of Normandy and of England, of Sicily and of Canada. Four
Norwegian students accomplished the journey from their native fjords
in an open Viking boat, having set ashore early in the voyage a
comrade who had so far fallen away from the customs of his ancestors
as to sleep under a blanket. From the United States bold
Scandinavians, aided by the American Express Company, brought
from Minnesota the Kensington rune stone, which purports to prove
the presence of Norse explorers in the northwest one hundred and
thirty years before the landfall of Columbus. A congress of Norman
history listened for nearly a week in five simultaneous sections to
communications on every phase of the Norman past. There was
Norman music in the streets, there were Norman plays at the theatres,
Norman mysteries in the cathedral close. Banquet followed banquet
and toast followed toast, till the cider of Normandy paled before the
champagne of France. Finally a great pageant, starting, like the city,
from the river-bank, unrolled the vast panorama of Norman history
through streets whose very names reëcho its great figures—Rollo and
his Norse companions arriving in their Viking ships, the dukes his
successors, William Longsword, Richard the Fearless, Robert the
Magnificent, William the Conqueror, the sons of Tancred of Hauteville
who drove the paynim from Sicily, and that other Tancred who planted
the banner of the cross on the walls of Jerusalem, all with their knights
and heralds and men at arms, followed by another pageant of the
achievements of Normandy in the arts of peace. And on the last
evening the great abbey-church of Saint-Ouen burnt red fire for the
first time in its history till the whole mass glowed and every statue and
storied niche stood out with some clear, sharp bit of the Norman past,
while its lantern-tower, “the crown of Normandy,” shone out over the
city and the river which are the centre of Norman history and where
this day the dukes wore again their crown.
In this transitory world the thousandth anniversary of anything is
sufficiently rare to challenge attention, even in an age which is rapidly
becoming hardened to celebrations. Of the events commemorated in
1915 the discovery of the Pacific is only four hundred years old, the
signing of the Great Charter but seven hundred. The oldest American
university has celebrated only its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary,
the oldest European only its eight-hundredth. Even those infrequent
commemorations which carry us back a thousand years or more, like
the millenary of King Alfred or the sixteen-hundredth Constantinian
jubilee of 1913, are usually reminders of great men or great events
rather than, as in the case of Normandy, the completion of a
millennium of continuous historical development. So far as I can now
recollect, the only parallel is that of Iceland, which rounded out its
thousand years with the dignity of a new constitution in 1874. Of about
the same age, Iceland also resembles Normandy in being the creation
of the Norse sea-rovers, an outpost of the Vikings in the west, as
Normandy was an outpost in the south. Of the two, Iceland is perhaps
the more individual, as it certainly has been the more faithful to its
Scandinavian traditions, but the conditions which have enabled it to
retain its early characteristics have also isolated it from the broader
currents of the world’s history. Normandy, on the other hand, was
drawn at once into the full tide of European politics and became itself a
founder of new states, an imperial power, a colonizer of lands beyond
the seas, the mother of a greater Normandy in England, in Sicily, and
in America.
At home and abroad the history of Normandy is a record of rich
and varied achievement—of war and conquest and feats of arms, but
also of law and government and religion, of agriculture, industry, trade,
and exploration, of literature and science and art. It takes us back to
Rollo and William of the Long Sword, to the Vikings and the
Crusaders, to the conquerors of England and Sicily, to masterful
prelates of the feudal age like Odo of Bayeux and Thomas Becket; it
brings us down to the admirals and men of art and letters of the Grand
Siècle,—Tourville and DuQuesne, Poussin, Malherbe, and the great
Corneille,—to Charlotte Corday and the days of the Terror, and to the
painters and scholars and men of letters of the nineteenth century,—
Géricault and Millet, Laplace and Léopold Delisle, Flaubert and
Maupassant and Albert Sorel. It traces the laborious clearing of ancient
forests, the rude processes of primitive agriculture, the making of
Norman cider and the breeding of the Norman horse, the vicissitudes
of trade in fish and marten-skins, in pottery, cheap cottons, and strong
waters, the development of a centre of fashion like Trouville or centres
of war and commerce like Cherbourg and Havre. It describes the slow
building of monasteries and cathedrals and the patient labors of priests
and monks, as well as the conquest of the Canaries, the colonization
of Canada, and the exploration of the Great West. A thousand years of
such history are well worth a week of commemoration and retrospect.
To the American traveller who wends his way toward Paris from
Cherbourg, Havre, or Dieppe, the first impression of Normandy is that
of a country strikingly like England. There are the same high chalk
cliffs, the same “little grey church on the windy shore,” often the same
orchards and hedges, poppies and roses. There are trees and wide
stretches of forest as in few other parts of France, placid, full-brimmed
rivers and quiet countrysides, and everywhere the rich green of
meadow and park and pasture, that vivid green of the north which
made Alphonse Daudet at Oxford shudder, “Green rheumatism,” as he
thought of the sun-browned plains and sharp, bare hills of his own
Provence. Normandy is brighter than England, with a dash more of
color in the landscape, but its skies are not sunny and its air breathes
the mists of the sea and the chill of the north. There is a grey tone
also, of grey towns and grey sea, matched by an austere and sombre
element in the Norman character, which, if it does not take its
pleasures sadly after the manner of Taine’s Englishmen, is prone to
take them soberly, and by an element of melancholy, a sense of le glas
des choses mortes, which Flaubert called the melancholy of the
northern barbarians. The Norman landscape also gives us the feeling
of finish and repose and the sentiment of a rich past, not merely in the
obvious externals of crumbling wall and ivied tower, but in that deeper
sense of a people bound from immemorial antiquity to the soil, adapted
to every local difference through long generations of use and wont, in
an intimate union of man and nature which makes the Norman
inseparable from his land. All this, too, is English, but English with a
difference. Just as, in Henry James’s phrase, the English landscape is
a landlord’s landscape, and the French a peasant’s, so the mairie and
the préfecture, the public garden and the public band, the café and the
ever-open church, the workman’s blouse and the grandam’s bonnet,
remind us continually that we are in a Latin country and on our way to
Paris.
Now the history of Normandy reflects this twofold impression of the
traveller: it faces toward England and the sea, but it belongs to France
and the land. Open to the outer world by the great valley of the Seine
and the bays and inlets of its long coast-line, Normandy was never
drawn to the sea in the same degree as its neighbor Brittany, nor
isolated in any such measure from the life of the Continent. Where the
shore is low, meadow and field run to the water’s edge; where it is
high, its line is relatively little broken, so that the streams generally
rush to the sea down short, steep valleys, up which wheeze the trains
which connect the little seaside ports and watering-places with the
modern world within. In spite of the trade of its rivers and its ports, in
spite of the growth of industry along its streams, Normandy is still
primarily an agricultural country, rooted deep in the rich soil of an
ancient past, a country of horses and cattle, of butter and cheese and
cider and the kindly fruits of the earth; and the continuity of its history
rests upon the land itself. “Behind the shore and even upon it,” says
Vidal de la Blache, “the ancient cumulative force of the interior has
reacted against the sea. There an old and rich civilization has
subsisted in its entirety, founded on the soil, through whose power
have resisted and endured the speech, the traditions, and the peoples
1
of ancient times.” Conquered and colonized by the sea-rovers of the
north, the land of Normandy was able to absorb its conquerors into the
law, the language, the religion, and the culture of France, where, as
Sorel says, their descendants now preserve “their attachment to their
native soil, the love of their ancestors, the respect for the ruins of the
2
past, and the indestructible veneration for its tombs.”
If the character of Normandy is thus in considerable measure
determined by geography, its boundaries and even its internal unity are
chiefly the result of history. For good and ill, Normandy has, on the
land side, no natural frontiers. The hills of the west continue those of
Brittany, the plains of the east merge in those of Picardy. The
watershed of the south marks no clear-cut boundary from Maine and
Perche; the valleys of the Seine and the Eure lead straight to the Ile-
de-France, separated from Normandy only by those border fortresses
of the Avre and the Vexin which are the perpetual battle-ground of
Norman history—Normandy’s Alsace-Lorraine! Within these limits lie
two distinct physiographic areas, one the lower portion of the Paris
basin, the other a western region which belongs with Brittany and the
west of France. These districts are commonly distinguished as Upper
and Lower Normandy, terms consecrated by long use and
representing two contrasted regions and types, but there is no general
agreement as to their exact limits or the limits of the region of Middle
Normandy which some have placed between them. Even the attempt
to define these areas in terms of cheese—as the land respectively of
the creamy Neufchâtel, the resilient Pont-l’Évêque, and the flowing
Camembert—is defective from the point of view of geographical
accuracy!
The most distinctive parts of Upper Normandy are the valley of the
Seine and the region to the north and east, the pays de Caux, fringed
by the coast from Havre to the frontier of Picardy. Less monotonous
than the bare plains farther east, the plateau of Caux is covered by a
rich vegetation, broken by scattered farmsteads, where house and
orchard and outbuildings are protected from the wind by those
rectangular earthworks surmounted by trees which are the most
characteristic feature of the region. It is the country of Madame Bovary
and of Maupassant’s peasants. Equally typical is the valley of the
Seine, ample, majestic, slow, cutting its sinuous way through high
banks which grow higher as we approach the sea, winding around
ancient strongholds like Château Gaillard and Tancarville or ruined
abbeys like Jumièges and Saint-Wandrille,—where Maeterlinck’s bees
still hum in the garden,—catching the tide soon after it enters
Normandy, reaching deep water at Rouen, and meeting the “longed-for
dash of waves” in the great estuary at its mouth. Halfway from the
Norman frontier to the river’s end stands Rouen, mistress of the Seine
and capital, not only of Upper Normandy, but of the whole Norman
land. Celtic in name and origin, like most French cities, chief town of
the Roman province of Lugdunensis Secunda and of the ecclesiastical
province to which this gave rise, the political and commercial
importance of Rouen have made it also the principal city of mediæval
and modern Normandy and the seat of the changing political authority
to which the land has bowed. As early as the twelfth century it is one of
the famous cities of Europe, likened to Rome by local poets and
celebrated even by sober historians for its murmuring streams and
pleasant meadows, its hill-girt site and strong defences, its beautiful
churches and private dwellings, its well-stocked markets, and its
extensive foreign trade. In spite of all modern changes, Rouen is still a
city full of history, in the parchments of its archives and the stones of
its walls, in its stately cathedral with the ancient tombs of the Norman
dukes, in the glorious nave of its great abbey-church, the florid Gothic
of Saint-Maclou, the richly carved perpendicular of its Palace of
Justice, and its splendid façades of the French Renaissance; historic
also in those unbuilt spots which mark the landing of the Northmen and
the burning of Joan of Arc.
Lower Normandy shows greater variety, comprising the hilly
country of the Bocage,—the so-called Norman Switzerland,—the plain
of Caen and the pasture-lands of the Bessin, and the wide sweep of
the Atlantic coast-line, from the promontory of La Hague to the shifting
sands of the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel. It is a country of green fields
and orchards and sunken lanes, of dank parks and mouldering
châteaux, of deserted mills and ancient parish churches, of quaint
timbered houses and long village streets, of silent streams, small ports,
and pebbly beaches, the whole merging ultimately in the neighboring
lands of Brittany and Maine. Its typical places are Falaise, Vire, and
Argentan, with their ancient castles of the Norman dukes; Bayeux and
Coutances, the foundations of whose soaring cathedrals carry us back
to the princely prelates of the Conquest; provincial capitals of the Old
Régime, like Valognes, or the new, like Saint-Lô; and best of all, the
crowning glories of the marvel of Mont-Saint-Michel. Its chief town is
Caen, stern and grey, the heart of Normandy as Rouen is its head, an
old poet tells us; no ancient Roman capital, but the creation of the
mediæval dukes, who reared its great abbey-churches to
commemorate the marriage and the piety of William the Conqueror
and Matilda, and who established their exchequer in its castle; an
intellectual centre also, the seat of the only Norman university, of an
academy, and of a society of antiquaries which has recovered for us
great portions of the Norman past.
Fashioned and enriched by the hand of man, the land of
Normandy has in turn profoundly influenced the character of its
inhabitants. First and foremost, the Norman is a peasant, industrious,
tenacious, cautious, secretive, distrustful of strangers, close-fisted,
shrewd, even to the point of cunning, a hard man at a bargain, eager
for gain, but with the genius for small affairs rather than for great, for
labor and economy rather than enterprise and daring. Suspicious of
novelty, he is a conservative in politics with a high regard for vested
interests. The possession of property, especially landed property, is his
great ambition; and since, as St. Francis long ago reminded us,
property is the sower of strife and suits at law, he is by nature litigious
and lawyerly. There is a well-known passage of Michelet which
describes the Norman peasant on his return from the fields explaining
the Civil Code to his attentive children; Racine, who immortalized
Chicaneau in his Plaideurs, laid the scene in a town of Lower
Normandy. Even in his time this was no new trait, for the fondness for
legal form and chicane can be traced in the early days of the Coutume
de Normandie, while the Burnt Njal Saga shows us the love of lawsuits
and fine points of procedure full-blown among the Northmen of
primitive Iceland. If Normandy is the pays de gain, it is also the pays
de sapience. Hard-headed and practical, the Norman is not an idealist
or a mystic; even his religion has a practical flavor, and the Bretons are
wont to assert that there has never been a Norman saint. With the
verse of Corneille and the splendid monuments of Romanesque and
Gothic architecture before us, no one can accuse the Normans of lack
of artistic sense, yet here, too, the Norman imagination is inclined to be
restrained and severe, realistic rather than romantic. Its typical modern
writers are Flaubert and Maupassant; its typical painter is Millet,
choosing his scenes from Barbizon, but loyal to the peasant types of
his native Normandy. Indeed Henry Adams insists that Flaubert’s style,
exact, impersonal, austere, is singularly like that of those great works
of Norman Romanesque, the old tower of Rouen cathedral and St.
Stephen’s abbey at Caen, and shows us “how an old art transmutes
3
itself into a new one, without changing its methods.” In history, a field
in which the Norman attachment to the past has produced notable
results, the distinguishing qualities of Norman work have been acute
criticism and great erudition rather than brilliant imagination. In
science, when a great Norman like Laplace discovered the nebular
hypothesis, he relegated it to a note in the appendix to his ordered and
systematic treatise on the motions of the heavenly bodies. The
Norman mind is neither nebular nor hypothetical!
The land is not the whole of nature’s gift to Normandy; we must
also take account of the sea, of those who came by sea and those who
went down to the sea in ships; and history tells us of another type of
Norman, those giants of an elder day who, as one of their descendants
has said, “found the seas too narrow and the land too tame.” The men
who subdued England and Sicily, who discovered the Canaries and
penetrated to the Mississippi, who colonized Quebec and ruled the Isle
of France, were no stay-at-homes, no cautious landsmen interested in
boundaries and inheritances and vain strivings about the law. Warriors
and adventurers in untamed lands and upon uncharted seas, they
were organizers of states and rulers of peoples, and it is their work
which gives Normandy its chief claim upon the attention of the student
of general history. These are the Normans of history and the Normans
of romance. Listen to the earliest characterizations of them which have
reached us from the south, as a monk of the eleventh century, Aimé of
Monte Cassino, sets out to recount the deeds of the southern
Normans, fortissime gent who have spread themselves over the earth,
ever leaving small things to acquire greater, unwilling to serve, but
4
seeking to have every one in subjection; or as his contemporary,
Geoffrey Malaterra, himself very likely of Norman origin, describes this
cunning and revengeful race, despising their own inheritance in the
hope of winning a greater elsewhere, eager for gain and eager for
power, quick to imitate whatever they see, at once lavish and greedy;
given to hunting and hawking and delighting in horses and
accoutrements and fine clothing, yet ready when occasion demands to
bear labor and hunger and cold; skilful in flattery and the use of fine
5
words, but unbridled unless held down firmly by the yoke of justice.
Turn then to the northern writers of the following century: William of
Malmesbury, who describes the fierce onslaughts of the Normans,
inured to war and scarcely able to live without it, their stratagems and
6
breaches of faith and their envy of both equals and superiors; or the
English monk Ordericus, who spent his life among them in Normandy
and who says:—

The race of the Normans is unconquered and ready for any


wild deed unless restrained by a strong ruler. In whatever
gathering they find themselves they always seek to dominate, and
in the heat of their ambition they are often led to violate their
obligations. All this the French and Bretons and Flemings and
other neighbors have frequently felt; this the Italians and the
Lombards, the Angles and Saxons, have also learned to their
7
undoing.

A little later it is the Norman poet Wace who tells, through the mouth of
the dying William the Conqueror, of these same Normans—brave and
valiant and conquering, proud and boastful and fond of good cheer,
8
hard to control and needing to be kept under foot by their rulers.
Through all these accounts runs the same story of a high-spirited,
masterful, unscrupulous race, eager for danger and ready for every
adventure, and needing always the bit and bridle rather than the spur.
The contrast is not merely between the eleventh century and the
twentieth, between a lawless race of pioneers and a race subdued and
softened by generations of order and peace; the two types are present
in the early days of Norman history. Among the conquerors of England
a recent historian distinguishes “the great soldiers of the invading host
... equally remarkable for foresight in council and for headlong courage
in the hour of action, whose wits are sharpened by danger and whose
resolution is only stimulated by obstacles; incapable of peaceful
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