[Math] Any real contribution of functional analysis to quantum theory as a branch of physics

fa.functional-analysisho.history-overviewmp.mathematical-physicsoa.operator-algebrasquantum mechanics

In the last paragraph of this last paper of Klaas Landsman, you can read:

Finally, let me note that this was a winner's (or "whig") history, full of hero-worship: following in the footsteps of Hilbert, von Neumann established the link between quantum theory and functional analysis that has lasted. Moreover, partly through von Neumann's own contributions (which are on a par with those of Bohr, Einstein, and Schrodinger), the precision that functional analysis has brought to quantum theory has greatly benefited the foundational debate. However, it is simultaneously a loser's history: starting with Dirac and continuing with Feynman, until the present day physicists have managed to bring quantum theory forward in utter (and, in my view, arrogant) disregard for the relevant mathematical literature. As such, functional analysis has so far failed to make any real contribution to quantum theory as a branch of physics (as opposed to mathematics), and in this respect its role seems to have been limited to something like classical music or other parts of human culture that adorn life but do not change the economy or save the planet. On the other hand, like General Relativity, perhaps the intellectual development reviewed
in this paper is one of those human achievements that make the planet worth saving.

To balance this interesting debate, if there actually exists real reasons to disagree with above bolded sentence of Klaas Landsman, let me ask the following:

What are the real contributions of functional analysis to quantum theory as a branch of physics?

Here "real" should be understood in the sense underlying the above paragraph.

This question was asked on physics.stackexchange and on PhysicsOverflow.

Best Answer

I'm can't claim to have studied the relevant history in a lot of detail, but count me a skeptic of Landsman's claim. Let's take this little paper and the companion that it cites as a test case, which I hope we can all agree is "real physics". The authors are clearly well versed in the calculus of variations and the representation theory of Lie groups. Both of these subjects are heavily intertwined with functional analysis - functional analysis is even foundational for the former. Are we to believe that these physicists were entirely ignorant of the subject? Or is the argument that functional analysis only influenced them indirectly through its contact with those mathematical applications?

I think Landsman's argument makes an error common among pure mathematicians about how mathematics is actually applied to the sciences. We tend to think about theorems, because those are the main objects of study in our work, but for consumers of mathematics it is the definitions that are important. The role of theorems is to validate the correctness and importance of definitions, and sometimes provide tools for manipulating them. The definitions of functional analysis - (un)bounded linear operators, Hilbert spaces, states, and so on - appear all over the place in quantum mechanics. And many of the big open problems in theoretical physics call primarily for definitions rather than theorems: Is there a measure space on which path integrals make sense? What is the correct notion of Dirac operator on the loop space of a manifold? Is there a gauge theory which includes both gravity and the standard model? And so on.