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Logic and Algebraic Structures in Quantum Computing

Arising from a special session held at the 2010 North American Annual Meeting of
the ASL, this volume is an international cross-disciplinary collaboration with
contributions from leading experts exploring connections across their respective fields.
Themes range from philosophical examination of the foundations of physics and
quantum logic, to exploitations of the methods and structures of operator theory,
category theory, and knot theory in an effort to gain insight into the fundamental
questions in quantum theory and logic.
The book will appeal to researchers and students working in related fields,
including logicians, mathematicians, computer scientists, and physicists. A brief
introduction provides essential background on quantum mechanics and category
theory, which, together with a thematic selection of articles, may also serve as the
basic material for a graduate course or seminar.

Je n n i f e r Ch u b b is Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of San


Francisco, where she teaches a wide range of courses, including quantum computing,
to students in physics, computer science, and mathematics. She has a background in
physics, dynamical systems, and pure and applied math. Her current research focuses
on computable structure theory and algorithmic mathematics.

Al i Es k a n d a r i a n holds the positions of Dean and Professor at The George


Washington University. He is a theoretical physicist and a founding member of the
groups in astrophysics and quantum computing/information. He serves as co-director
of the Center for Quantum Computing, Information, Logic, and Topology.

Va l e n t i na Ha r i z a n ov is a Professor of Mathematics at The George Washington


University, where she also serves as co-director of the Center for Quantum Computing,
Information, Logic, and Topology. She is internationally recognized for her research in
mathematical logic, particularly in computability theory and computable model theory.
L E C T U R E N OT E S I N L O G I C

A Publication of The Association for Symbolic Logic

This series serves researchers, teachers, and students in the field of symbolic
logic, broadly interpreted. The aim of the series is to bring publications to the
logic community with the least possible delay and to provide rapid
dissemination of the latest research. Scientific quality is the overriding
criterion by which submissions are evaluated.

Editorial Board
Jeremy Avigad
Department of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University
Zoe Chatzidakis
DMA, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris
Peter Cholak, Managing Editor
Department of Mathematics, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Volker Halbach
New College, University of Oxford
H. Dugald Macpherson
School of Mathematics, University of Leeds
Slawomir Solecki
Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Thomas Wilke
Institut für Informatik, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

More information, including a list of the books in the series, can be found at
http://www.aslonline.org/books-lnl.html
L E C T U R E N OT E S I N L O G I C 4 5

Logic and Algebraic Structures in


Quantum Computing

Edited by
JENNIFER CHUBB
University of San Francisco

ALI ESKANDARIAN
George Washington University, Washington DC

VALENTINA HARIZANOV
George Washington University, Washington DC

association for symbolic logic


University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.


It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of
education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107033399
Association for Symbolic Logic
Richard Shore, Publisher
Department of Mathematics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
http://www.aslonline.org
© Association for Symbolic Logic 2016
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2016
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Names: Chubb, Jennifer. | Eskandarian, Ali. | Harizanov, Valentina S.
Title: Logic and algebraic structures in quantum computing / edited by Jennifer Chubb,
University of San Francisco, Ali Eskandarian, George Washington University, Washington
DC, Valentina Harizanov, George Washington University, Washington DC.
Description: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2016. | Series: Lecture notes in
logic | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015042942 | ISBN 9781107033399 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Quantum computing–Mathematics. | Logic, Symbolic and
mathematical. | Algebra, Abstract.
Classification: LCC QA76.889 .L655 2016 | DDC 006.3/843–dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015042942
ISBN 978-1-107-03339-9 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of
URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
CONTENTS

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Jennifer Chubb, Ali Eskandarian, and Valentina Harizanov
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Jennifer Chubb and Valentina Harizanov
A (very) brief tour of quantum mechanics, computation, and category
theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Allen Stairs
Could logic be empirical? The Putnam-Kripke debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
William C. Parke
The essence of quantum theory for computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Adam Brandenburger and H. Jerome Keisler
Fiber products of measures and quantum foundations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Samson Abramsky and Chris Heunen
Operational theories and categorical quantum mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Bart Jacobs and Jorik Mandemaker
Relating operator spaces via adjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Andreas Döring
Topos-based logic for quantum systems and bi-Heyting algebras . . . . 151
Bob Coecke
The logic of quantum mechanics – Take II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Dimitri Kartsaklis, Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh, Stephen Pulman, and Bob
Coecke
Reasoning about meaning in natural language with compact closed
categories and Frobenius algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Louis H. Kauffman
Knot logic and topological quantum computing with Majorana
fermions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

v
PREFACE

This project grew out of a Special Session on Logic and the Foundations
of Physics at the 2010 North American Annual Meeting of the Association
for Symbolic Logic1 . Many of the session’s lecturers investigated the role of
algebraic structures in the context of the foundations of quantum physics,
especially in quantum information and computation. In addition to this
session, attendees heard tutorial lectures on quantum computing (given by
Bob Coecke, University of Oxford) and an invited lecture on intuitionistic
quantum logic (by Klaas Landsman, Radboud University, Nijmegen). The
talks were so well-received by conference participants that we felt a volume of
collected works on this subject would be a valuable addition to the literature.
The articles in this volume by mathematicians, philosophers, and scientists
address foundational issues and fundamental abstract structures arising in
highly active areas of theoretical, mathematical, and even experimental physics
relevant to quantum information and quantum computation. We hope that
the present collection advances this worthwhile program of scientific and
mathematical progress.
We would like to thank the authors that contributed to this volume, and
the ASL and Cambridge University Press for publishing it. This project was
partially supported by the George Washington University Centers & Institutes
Facilitating Fund Grant and by the University of San Francisco Faculty
Development Fund. Many thanks also to Bryan Fregoso (a University of San
Francisco student) for his invaluable assistance in assembling this volume.

Jennifer Chubb
Ali Eskandarian
Valentina Harizanov
Summer, 2015, Washington, D.C.

1 The full program is available in the Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, vol. 17 (2011), no. 1, pp. 135–137,

available online at https://www.math.ucla.edu/∼asl/bsl/1701-toc.htm.

vii
INTRODUCTION

JENNIFER CHUBB, ALI ESKANDARIAN, AND VALENTINA HARIZANOV

In the last two decades, the scientific community has witnessed a surge in
activity, interesting results, and notable progress in our conceptual understand-
ing of computing and information based on the laws of quantum theory. One
of the significant aspects of these developments has been an integration of
several fields of inquiry that not long ago appeared to be evolving, more or less,
along narrow disciplinary paths without any major overlap with each other. In
the resulting body of work, investigators have revealed a deeper connection
among the ideas and techniques of (apparently) disparate fields. As is evident
from the title of this volume, logic, mathematics, physics, computer science
and information theory are intricately involved in this fascinating story. The
inquisitive reader might focus, perhaps, on the marriage of the most unlikely
and intriguing fields of quantum theory and logic and ask: Why quantum logic?
By many, “logic” is deemed to be panacea for faulty intuition. It is often
associated with the rules of correct thinking and decision-making, but not
necessarily in its most sublime role as a deep intellectual subject underlying the
validity of mathematical structures and worthy of investigation and discovery
in its own right. Indeed, within the realm of the classical theories of nature,
one may encounter situations that defy comprehension, should one hold to the
intuition developed through experiencing familiar macroscopic scenarios in
our routine impressions of natural phenomena.
One such example is a statement within the special theory of relativity that
the speed of light is the same in all inertial frames. It certainly defies the
common intuition regarding the observation of velocities of familiar objects in
relative motion. One might be tempted to dismiss it as contrary to observation.
However, while analyzing natural phenomena for objects moving close to
the speed of light and, therefore, unfamiliar in the range of velocities we
are normally accustomed to, logical deductions based on the postulates of
the special relativity theory lead to the correct predictions of experimental
observations.
There exists an undeniable interconnection between the deepest theories of
nature and mathematical reasoning, famously stated by Eugene Wigner as
the unreasonable efficacy of mathematics in physical theories. The sciences,
Logic and Algebraic Structures in Quantum Computing
Edited by J. Chubb, A. Eskandarian and V. Harizanov
Lecture Notes in Logic, 45
c 2016, Association for Symbolic Logic 1
2 JENNIFER CHUBB, ALI ESKANDARIAN, AND VALENTINA HARIZANOV

and in particular physics, have relied on, and benefited from, the economy of
mathematical expressions and the efficacy and rigor of mathematical reasoning
with its underlying logical structure to make definite statements and predictions
about nature. Mathematics has become the de facto language of the quantitative
sciences, particularly scientific theories, and the major discoveries and predictive
statements of these theories (whenever possible) are cast in the language of
mathematics, as it affords them elegance as well as economy of expression.
What happens if the syntax and grammar of such a language become inadequate?
This seems to have been the case when some of the more esoteric predictions
of the then new theory of quantum mechanics began to challenge the scientific
intuition of the times around the turn of the 20th century. This violation
of intuition was so severe that even the most prominent of scientists were
not able to reconcile the dictates of their intuition with the experimentally
confirmed predictions of the theory. The discomfort with some of the features
and predictions of quantum theory were, perhaps, most prominently brought
out in the celebrated work of Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) in the
mid 1930s. EPR fueled several decades of investigations on the foundations
of quantum theory that continue to this day. The main assertion of the
EPR work was that quantum theory had to be, by necessity, incomplete.
Otherwise, long held understanding of what should be taken for granted as
“elements of reality” had to be abandoned. Here, according to EPR, logical
deductions based on primitives that were the very essence of reality and logical
consistency forced the conclusion of the incompleteness of quantum theory;
as if considering quantum theory as complete would question one’s logical
fitness and one’s understanding of reality! Yet, in the decades since, with
increasing sophistication in experimentation, and multiple ways of testing
the theory, quantum theory has consistently outshined the alternatives. In
particular, many predictions relying on the sensibilities of classical theories,
where concepts such as separability, locality, and causality are the seemingly
indispensable factors in our understanding of reality, are found to be entirely
inconsistent with the actual reality around us. Quantum theory has not (as
yet) suffered any such blow.
Confronted with the stark inability to reconcile the predictions of a theory,
which are shown to be correct every time subjected to experimental verification,
and a logical structure that seems to fall short in facilitating correct thinking
and correct decision making (at least, in so far as the behavior of natural
phenomena at the quantum level is concerned), one is forced to consider and
question the validity of the premises on which that logical structure is built, or
to discover alternative structures. Furthermore, the striking applications of
quantum theory in the theory of computation, development of new algorithms,
and the promising prospects for the building of a computing machine operating
on the basis of the laws of quantum theory, necessitate a deeper investigation of
alternative logical structures that encompass the elements of this new quantum
INTRODUCTION 3

reality. One must then give credence to the argument that, perhaps, the fault is
not with the revolutionary quantum theory; rather, it is with the inadequacies
of logical structures that were insufficient to be expanded and applied to a
world that does not comply with the notions embodied in our understanding
of the macroscopic classical physical theories of nature.
The utility of logical rules is most pronounced when applied to the building
and operation of computing machines. With the advent of computing that
takes advantage of the laws of quantum theory, i.e., quantum computing,
it is only natural to search for those logical and algebraic structures that
underlie the scaffolding of the quantum rules in computations. As obvious
as it is that Boolean logic underlies classical computing and much of classical
reasoning, it is equally obvious that it is not sufficient to express the logic
underlying quantum mechanics or quantum computing. Birkhoff and von
Neumann were among the first to propose a generalization of Boolean logic in
which propositions about quantum systems could be formulated. While their
endeavor was revolutionary, the Birkhoff-von Neumann quantum logic was
not to be the final word on the subject of a logic for quantum mechanics, and
indeed the investigation continues with increasing urgency.
In this volume, we present the work of a select group of scholars with an abid-
ing interest in tackling some of the fundamental issues facing quantum comput-
ing and information theory, as investigated from the perspective of logical and al-
gebraic structures. This selection, no doubt, reflects the intellectual proclivities
and curiosities of the editors, within the reasonable limitations of space and cov-
erage of topics for a volume of this size, and for the purpose of generating ideas
that would fuel further investigation and research in these and related fields.
The first two articles, by Stairs and Parke, address philosophical and histori-
cal issues. Brandenburger and Keisler use ideas from continuous model theory
to explore determinism and locality in quantum mechanical systems. Abramsky
and Heunen, and Jacobs and Mandemaker describe the relationship between
the category-theoretic and operator-theoretic approaches to the foundations
of quantum physics. Döring gives a topos-based distributive form of quantum
logic as an alternative to the quantum logic of Birkhoff and von Neumann.
The papers by Coecke and Kartsaklis et al. use a diagrammatic calculus in
analyzing quantum mechanical systems and, very recently, in computational
linguistics. Kauffman’s article presents an extensive treatment of the prominent
role of algebraic structures arising from topological considerations in quantum
information and computing; the pictorial approach used in knot theory is
closely related to the quantum categorical logic presented in other articles in
this volume.

Could logic be empirical? The Putnam-Kripke debate, by Allen Stairs. In


his article in the present volume, Stairs outlines Hilary Putnam’s position that
quantum mechanics provides an empirical basis for a re-evaluation of our
4 JENNIFER CHUBB, ALI ESKANDARIAN, AND VALENTINA HARIZANOV

idea of logic and Saul Kripke’s response, in which he takes issue with the very
idea of a logic that is based on anything empirical. Stairs carefully interprets
their positions, and in the end offers the beginnings of a compromise, which
includes “disjunctive facts,” which can be true even if their disjuncts are not,
and the notion of “l-complementarity,” to describe the relationship between
statements having non-commuting associated projectors. The article wrestles
with the idea of whether and how quantum mechanics should inform our logic
and reasoning processes.
The essence of quantum theory for computers, by William C. Parke. In this
article, Parke provides a thorough yet succinct introduction to the elements
of physical theories, classical and quantum, which are relevant to a deeper
understanding of the mathematical and logical structures underlying (or
derived) from such theories, and important in the appreciation of the more
subtle quandaries of quantum theory, leading to its utilization in computation.
The emphasis has been placed on the physical content of information and
elements of computation from a physicist’s point of view. This includes a
treatment of the role of space-time in the development of physical theories from
an advanced point of view, and the limitations that our current understanding
of space-time imposes on building and utilizing computing machines based
on the rules of quantum theory. The treatment of the principles of quantum
theory is also developed from an advanced point of view, without too much
focus on unnecessary details, but covering the essential conceptual ingredients,
in order to set the stage properly and provide motivation for the work of the
others on logical and algebraic structures.
Fiber products of measures and quantum foundations, by Adam Branden-
burger and H. Jerome Keisler. In this model-theoretic article, the authors use
fiber products of (probability) measures within a framework they construct
for empirical and hidden-variable models to prove determinization theorems.
These objects (fiber products) were conceived by Rae Shortt in a 1984 paper,
and were used recently by Itaı̈ Ben Yaacov and Jerome Keisler in their work on
continuous model theory (2009). Techniques in continuous model theory are
relevant to the notion of models of quantum structures as in that context the
“truth value” of a statement may take on a continuum of values, and can be
thought of as probabilistic. In this case, a technique employed in continuous
model theory is used in the construction of models in proofs of theorems
that assert that every empirical model can be realized by an extension that is
a deterministic hidden-variable model, and for every hidden-variable model
satisfying locality and -independence, there is a realization-equivalent (both
models extend a common empirical submodel) hidden-variable model satisfy-
ing determinism and -independence. The latter statement, together with Bell’s
theorem, precludes the existence of a hidden-variable model in which both
determinism and -independence hold. The notion of -independence was
INTRODUCTION 5

first formulated by W. Michael Dickson (2005). It says that the choices made
by an entity as to which observable to measure in a system are not influenced
by the process of the determination of the value of a relevant hidden-variable.
Operational theories and categorical quantum mechanics, by Samson Abram-
sky and Chris Heunen. There are two complementary research programs in
the foundations of quantum mechanics, one based on operational theories
(also called general probabilistic theories) and the other on category-theoretic
foundation of quantum theory. Samson Abramsky and Chris Heunen establish
strong and important connections between these two formalisms. Operational
theories focus on empirical and observational content, and quantum mechan-
ics occupies one point in a space of possible theories. The authors define a
symmetric monoidal categorical structure of an operational theory, which they
call process category, and exploit the ideas of categorical quantum mechanics
to obtain an operational theory as a certain representation of this process
category. They lift the notion of non-locality to the general level of operational
category. They further propose to apply a similar analysis to contextuality,
which can be viewed as a broader phenomenon than non-locality.
Relating operator spaces via adjunctions, by Bart Jacobs and Jorik Mande-
maker. By exploiting techniques of category theory, Jacobs and Mandemaker
clarify and present in a unified framework various, seemingly different results
in the foundation of quantum theory found in the literature. They use category-
theoretic tools to describe relations between various spaces of operators on
a finite-dimensional Hilbert space, which arise in quantum theory, including
bounded, self-adjoint, positive, effect, projection, and density operators. They
describe the algebraic structure of these sets of operators in terms of modules
over various semirings, such as the complex numbers, the real numbers, the
non-negative real numbers. The authors give a uniform description of such
modules via the notion of an algebra of the multiset monad. They show how
some spaces of operators are related by free constructions between categories
of modules, while the other spaces of operators are related by a dual adjunction
between convex sets (conveniently described via a monad) and effect modules.
Topos-based logic for quantum systems and bi-Heyting algebras, by Andreas
Döring. Döring replaces the standard quantum logic, introduced by Birkhoff
and von Neumann, which comes with a host of conceptual and interpretational
problems, by the topos-based distributive form of quantum logic. Instead of
having a non-distributive orthomodular lattice of projections, he considers
a complete bi-Heyting algebra of propositions. More specifically, Döring
considers clopen subobjects of the presheaf attaching the Gelfand spectrum to
each abelian von Neumann algebra, and shows that these clopen subojects form
a bi-Heyting algebra. He gives various physical interpretations of the objects
in this algebra and of the operations on them. For example, he introduces two
6 JENNIFER CHUBB, ALI ESKANDARIAN, AND VALENTINA HARIZANOV

kinds of negation associated with the Heyting and co-Heyting algebras, and
gives physical interpretation of the two kinds of negation. Döring considers the
map called outer daseinisation of projections, which provides a link between
the usual Hilbert space formalism and his topos-based quantum logic.
The logic of quantum mechanics – Take II, by Bob Coecke. Schrödinger
maintained that composition of systems is the heart of quantum computing,
and Coecke agrees. He suggests that the Birkhoff-von Neumann formulation
of quantum logic fails to adequately and elegantly capture composition of
quantum systems. The author puts forth a model of quantum logic that is
based on composition rather superposition. He axiomatizes composition
without reference to underlying systems using strict monoidal categories as
the basic structures and explains a graphical language that exactly captures
these structures. Imposing minimal additional structure on these categories
(to obtain dagger compact categories) allows for the almost trivial derivation
of a number of quantum phenomena, including quantum teleportation and
entanglement swapping. This (now widely adopted) formalism has been used
not only to solve open problems in quantum information theory, but has also
provided new insight into non-locality.
Coecke’s framework has been applied both to logic concerned with natural
language interpretations, and to more formal automated reasoning processes.
In this article, the focus is on the former. Coecke applies the graphical language
of dagger compact categories to natural language processing—“from word
meaning to sentence meaning”—implementing Lambek’s theory of grammar
and the notion of words as “meaning vectors.” He argues that sentence
meaning amounts to more than the meanings of the constituent words, but
also the way in which they compose.
In the end, Coecke confesses that dagger compact categories do not capture
all we might want them to, in particular, measurement, observables, and
complementarity are left by the wayside. The model can be expanded (using
spiders!) in such a way that all these are captured. Coecke closes with
speculation about an important question: Where is the traditional logic hiding
in all this?
Reasoning about meaning in natural language with compact closed categories
and Frobenius algebras, by Dimitri Kartsaklis, Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh, Stephen
Pulman, and Bob Coecke. The authors apply category-theoretic methods to
computational lingustics by mapping the derivations of the grammar logic to
the distributional interpretation via a strongly monoidal functor. Such functors
are structure preserving morphims. Grammatical structure is modeled through
the derivations of pregroup grammars. A pregroup is a partially ordered
monoid with left and right adjoints for every element in the partial order. The
authors build tensors for linguistic constructs with complex types by using
a Frobenius algebra. The Frobenius operations allow them to assign and
INTRODUCTION 7

compare the meanings of different language constructs such as words, phrases,


and sentences in a single space. The authors present their experimental results
for the evaluation of their model in a number of natural languages.
Knot logic and topological quantum computing with Majorana fermions, by
Louis H. Kauffman. Kauffman presents several topics exploring the relation-
ship between low-dimensional topology and quantum computing. These topics
have been introduced and developed by Kauffman and Samuel J. Lomonaco
over the last ten years. Kauffman uses the diagrammatic approach, and is
particularly interested in models based upon the Temperley-Lieb categories.
He discusses from several different perspectives the Fibonacci model related
to the Temperley-Lieb algebra at fifth roots of unity. Kauffman shows how
knots are related to braiding and quantum operators, as well as to quantum
set-theoretic foundations. For example, the negation can generate the fusion
algebra for a Majorana fermion, which is a particle that interacts with itself
and can even annihilate itself. Thus, Kauffman calls the negation the mark.
He investigates the relationship between knot-theoretic recoupling theory
and topological quantum field theory. Kauffman works with braid groups
and their representations, and produces unitary representations of the braid
groups that are dense in the unitary groups. He describes the Jones polynomial
in terms of his bracket polynomial and applies his approach to design a
quantum algorithm for computing the colored Jones polynomials for knots
and links. Kauffman also gives a quantum algorithm for computing the
Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariant of three manifolds.
DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS
UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117
E-mail: [email protected]

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
VIRGINIA SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CAMPUS
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
ASHBURN, VIRGINIA 20147
E-mail: [email protected]

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20052
E-mail: [email protected]
A (VERY) BRIEF TOUR OF QUANTUM MECHANICS,
COMPUTATION, AND CATEGORY THEORY

JENNIFER CHUBB AND VALENTINA HARIZANOV

This chapter is intended to be a brief treatment of the basic mechanics,


framework, and concepts relevant to the study of quantum computing and
information for review and reference. Part 1 (sections 1– 4) surveys quantum
mechanics and computation, with sections organized according to the com-
monly known postulates of quantum theory. The second part (sections 5–7)
provides a survey of category theory. Additional references to works in this
volume are included throughout, and general references appear at the end.

Part 1: Quantum mechanics & computation

§1. Qubits & quantum states.


Postulate of quantum mechanics: Representing states of systems. The state of
a quantum system is represented by a unit-length vector in a complex Hilbert
space1 , H, that corresponds to that system. The state space of a composite
system is the tensor product of the state spaces of the subsystems.
The Dirac bra-ket notation for states of quantum systems is ubiquitous
in the literature, and we adopt it here. A vector in a complex Hilbert space
representing a quantum state is written as a ket, |, and its conjugate-transpose
(adjoint, or sometimes Hermitian conjugate) is written as a bra, |. In this
notation, a bra-ket denotes an inner product, ϕ|, and a ket-bra denotes an
outer product, |ϕ|.
Each one-dimensional subspace of H corresponds to a possible state of the
system, and a state is usually described as a linear combination in a relevant
orthonormal basis. The basis elements are often thought of as basic states.
Quantum systems can exist in a superposition of more than one basic state: If a
quantum system has access to two basic states, say |α and |, then, in general,
the system’s “current state” can be represented by a linear combination of
these states in complex Hilbert space:
| = c1 |α + c2 |, where ||| = 1.
1A Hilbert space is a complete, normed metric space, where the norm and distance function
are induced by an inner product defined on the space.

Logic and Algebraic Structures in Quantum Computing


Edited by J. Chubb, A. Eskandarian and V. Harizanov
Lecture Notes in Logic, 45
c 2016, Association for Symbolic Logic 8
QUANTUM MECHANICS & CATEGORY THEORY 9

The complex coefficients, c1 and c2 , of |α and | give classical probabilistic
information about the state. For example, the value |c1 |2 is the probability that
the system would be found to be in state |α upon measurement. The coefficient
itself, c1 , is called the probability amplitude. Two vectors in H represent the
same state if they differ only by a global phase factor: If | = e i |ϕ, then
| and |ϕ represent the same state, and the (real) probabilities described by
the coefficients are the same.
The squared norm of the state vector | is the inner product of | with
itself, i.e., the bra-ket |. The quantity |ϕ||2 is the probability that
upon measurement, | will be found to be in state |ϕ, and ϕ| is the
corresponding probability amplitude. (More about measurement of quantum
systems can be found in Section 3 below.)
1.1. Qubits. A classical bit can be in only one of two states at a given
time, |0 or |1. A quantum bit or qubit may exist in a superposition of these
basic (orthogonal) states, | = c1 |0 + c2 |1, where c1 and c2 are complex
probability amplitudes. More precisely, a qubit is a 2-dimensional quantum
system, the state of which is a unit-length vector in H = C2 . The basic states
for this space are usually thought of as |0 and |1, but at times other bases
are used (for example, {|+, |−} or {| ↑, | ↓}). Basic states are typically
the eigenstates (eigenvectors) of an observable of interest (see discussion of
measurement below).
Any unit vector that is a (complex) linear combination of the basic states
is a pure state and non-trivial linear combinations are superpositions. So-
called mixed states are not proper state vectors, they are classical probabilistic
combinations of pure states and are best represented by density matrices.
The state space of a qubit is often visualized as a point on the Bloch sphere.
The norm of a state vector is always one, and states that differ only by a global
phase factor are identified, so two real numbers,  and φ, suffice to specify a
distinct state via the decomposition
   
 
| = cos |0 + e sin

|1.
2 2

Respectively, the range of values taken on by  and φ may be restricted


to the intervals [0, ] and [0, 2 ) without any loss of generality, and so the
corresponding distinct states may be mapped uniquely onto the unit sphere in
R3 . In this visualization, the basic vector |0 points up and |1 points down, 
describes the latitudinal angle, and ϕ the longitudinal angle. Orthogonal states
are antipodal on the Bloch sphere. Note that states that differ by a global
phase factor will (by design) coincide in this visualization.
1.2. Composite quantum systems. As described above, a single quantum
system (for example, a single qubit) exists in a pure state that may be a
superposition of basic states. A composition of systems may exist either in a
10 JENNIFER CHUBB AND VALENTINA HARIZANOV

separable or an entangled state. Separable states are states that can be written
as tensor products of pure states of the constituent subsystems. Entangled
states cannot be so written; they are non-trivial (complex) linear combinations
of separable states. In the case of an entangled state, the subsystems cannot be
thought of as existing in states independent of the composed system.
Example 1.1. Suppose
√ we have a system of two qubits, the√first in state
| = (|0 + |1)/ 2 and the second in state |ϕ = (|0 − |1)/ 2. The state
of the combined system is
1
| ⊗ |ϕ = ||ϕ = (|00 − |01 + |10 − |11).
2
Such a state of the composite system that can be written as a tensor product of
pure states is called separable.
Example 1.2. The Bell states of a 2-qubit system are not separable; they are
important and canonical examples of entangled states:
|00 + |11 |00 − |11
√ √
2 2
|01 + |10 |01 − |10
√ √
2 2
Example 1.3. The GHZ states (for Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger) are ex-
amples of entangled states in composite systems that have three or more
subsystems. The GHZ state for a system with n subsystems is
|0⊗n + |1⊗n
√ .
2
For more on entangled states, see Parke’s article in this volume, or Section 6
of Kauffman’s article.

§2. Transformations and quantum gates.


Postulate of quantum mechanics: Evolution of systems. The time evolution
of a closed quantum system is described by a unitary transformation.
A transformation is unitary if its inverse is equal to its adjoint. Such
transformations preserve inner products and are reversible, deterministic, and
continuous. In quantum computing, algorithms are often described as circuits
in which information (and time) flows from left to right. Quantum gates
represent unitary transformations applied to qubits in such a circuit.
Example 2.1. The Hadamard gate. The 1-qubit Hadamard gate has as input
and output one qubit, as shown in the simple circuit diagram below:
QUANTUM MECHANICS & CATEGORY THEORY 11
 
Its matrix representation (with respect to the basis |0 = [1 0]T , |1 = [0 1]T )
is:  
1 1 1
H =√ .
2 1 −1
 
1
This transformation applied to the basic state |0 = results in the
  0
1
superposition H |0 = √12 (|0 + |1) = √12 .
1
Example 2.2. The controlled-not gate. Another important quantum gate is
the controlled-not or CNOT gate. The gate requires two inputs, one designated
as the control input (passing through the solid dot) and the other as the target
input:

When the control input is in state |0, the gate does nothing. If the control is
in state |1 (as it is in the diagram above), the gate acts by “flipping” the non-
control (target) input as follows: If the target input is in state | = c0 |0+c1 |1,
then flipping transforms the state to |   = c0 |1 + c1 |0. The gate does not
alter the control bit. Thematrix representation of CNOT is the following (given
 basis |00 = [1 0 0 0] , |01 = [0 1 0 0] , |10 = [0 0 1 0] ,
T T T
with respect to the
|11 = [0 0 0 1] ):
T
⎡ ⎤
1 0 0 0
1⎢ 0 1 0 0 ⎥
CNOT = ⎢ ⎥.
2⎣ 0 0 0 1 ⎦
0 0 1 0
For more on quantum gates and unitary transformations of quantum systems,
see Parke’s and Kauffman’s articles in this volume.

§3. Measurement.
Postulate of quantum mechanics: Measurement. The notion of measurement
is described in terms of observables represented by Hermitian (self-adjoint)
matrices. (It should be noted that not all such matrices describe physically
meaningful measurements.)
A Hermitian matrix has all real eigenvalues, and these represent the possible
values obtained upon measurement of the observable. Moreover, distinct
eigenvalues yield orthogonal eigenvectors. These matrices are often described
in terms of their spectral decompositions. Upon measurement, a system’s
12 JENNIFER CHUBB AND VALENTINA HARIZANOV

state (or wave function) experiences a “collapse” and is not preserved. After
measurement, the state of the system is the eigenvector corresponding to the
eigenvalue that was the result of the measurement.
Example 3.1. If the matrix A corresponding to an observable A has (real)
eigenvalue a and corresponding unit-length eigenvector |va , then the proba-
bility that measuring A on state |ϕ will yield the value a is given by |va |ϕ|2 .
If a is the result of the measurement of A on |ϕ, the system is left in state
|va . If we consider the result of such a measurement as a random variable,
the expected value (expectation value) of that quantity is given by ϕ|A|ϕ.
Very briefly, if the matrices representing two different observables are non-
commuting, then the observables are often referred to as complementary
and measurements of these observables are subject to uncertainty limits.
Complementary observables suffer from necessarily limited precision when
measured simultaneously as a result of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

§4. No-go theorems and teleportation.


4.1. No cloning. In classical computation, it is possible to implement error
correction by simply duplicating the classical data as needed. This is not the
case in quantum computations.
Let | be an arbitrary state in state space H, and |e be an ancillary state
(independent of |) in an identical state space. To “clone” the state |,
we would need to have a unitary transformation that when applied to ||e
replaces the ancillary state with a copy of |, yielding ||.
Theorem 4.1 (No-cloning theorem). There is no unitary operator U so that
for all states | and ancillary states |e,
U ||e = ||.
To see why, consider the possibility that there does exist such an operator U .
As U must be unitary, it must preserve inner products, hence for any  and ϕ,
we must have the following:
ϕ| = e|ϕ||e = e|ϕ|U † U ||e = ϕ|ϕ|| = (ϕ|)2 .
We see that ϕ| must be either 0 or 1 in order for this equality to hold, and
so such a U preserves inner product only selectively—the states |ϕ and |
must be identical or orthogonal.
4.2. The EPR paradox, hidden variables, and Bell’s Theorem. In 1935, Ein-
stein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) questioned the completeness of quantum
mechanics in the form of a thought experiment involving the measurement of
one part of a 2-particle entangled system. According to EPR, two mutually
exclusive conclusions may be reached regarding quantum mechanics: either
quantum mechanics is incomplete, or the physical quantities associated with
two non-commuting operators cannot have simultaneous reality. Subsequently,
QUANTUM MECHANICS & CATEGORY THEORY 13

building on the behavior of a two-component system under the laws of quantum


theory, EPR argue for the incompleteness of quantum theory.
The following scenario captures the idea of the quandary they posed. Imagine
that two particles, A and B, interact and then part ways. If one measures
the momentum of particle A, he may compute the momentum of particle B
exactly due to entanglement. If he subsequently measures the momentum
of particle B, the result will be exactly that computed value. Similarly, the
particles’ positions may be observed, computed, and checked. However, the
measurement operators corresponding to these observables (position and
momentum) do not commute, and hence an exact knowledge of position
entails some uncertainty in the value of momentum. The EPR argument makes
a case for being able to assign two different wave functions (or states) to the
same reality (particle B), by judicious choice of measurements on particle A,
which leads to the conclusion that quantum mechanics must be incomplete.
A related question is this: How does particle B “know” to have a precisely
defined momentum and an uncertain position when particle A’s momentum
is measured? According to the principle of locality, a physical process occur-
ring in one place should not be able to affect a physical process in another
location (outside the light cone of the first process). This scenario seems to
entail either superluminal transmission of information between the particles
(violating locality), or some “hidden variable” or “element of reality” encoding
the information as yet unaccounted for by quantum mechanics (assuming
determinism or realism). This is the idea underlying the famous EPR paradox.
In 1964, John Stewart Bell formalized (mathematically) the notions of
locality and realism, and gave a set of inequalities that would provide a test
of quantum mechanics against a local hidden variable theory. In the 1970s
and 1980s, physical experiments (carried out most famously by Alain Aspect)
demonstrated in favor of the former. What is known as Bell’s Theorem is the
summary of all this, asserting that no locally realistic theory can make the
predictions of quantum mechanics.
Another related theorem is the Kochen-Specker Theorem, which says that a
non-contextual hidden variable theory (one in which the value of an observable
in a system is independent of the apparatus used to measure it) is unable to
make the predictions of quantum mechanics.
4.3. Quantum teleportation. It would be difficult to overstate the importance
of entanglement in quantum computing and the difficulty in representing and
interpreting this phenomenon in possible quantum logics. A basic illustration
of the power of entanglement is in the quantum teleportation protocol: An EPR
pair, that is, a pair of qubits in a (entangled) Bell state, are prepared. One qubit
is in the possession of entity A (Alice) and the other is in the possession of
entity B (Bob). Alice also has a qubit, |, which she would like to send to Bob.
To do this, Alice applies a CNOT transformation to her two qubits, using | as
the control, followed by an application of the Hadamard transformation to |.
14 JENNIFER CHUBB AND VALENTINA HARIZANOV

She then measures both of her qubits2 (they are destroyed in the process), and
(classically) communicates to Bob the (classical) information that results of
her measurements. Upon receiving this information, Bob preforms one of four
corresponding transformations, T , resulting in the transformation of his qubit
into the state |, which Alice wished to transmit to him.

Note that this protocol does not violate the no-cloning theorem (Alice’s copy
is destroyed), nor Bell’s Theorem (classical information must be transmitted
subluminally).
For alternative formulations of the quantum teleportation protocol in a
graphical language and another (similar) formulation in quantum topology,
see Coecke’s and Kauffman’s (respectively) articles in this volume.
For more detailed exposition on all these ideas and topics, the following
texts may be useful:
Textbooks at the undergraduate level
• Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists, by Noson S. Yanofsky and
Mirco A. Mannucci, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• An Introduction to Quantum Computing, by Phillip Kaye, Raymond
Laflamme, and Michele Mosca, Oxford University Press, 2007.
• Quantum Computing: A Gentle Introduction, by Eleanor Rieffel and
Wolfgang Polak, MIT Press, 2011.
• Quantum Computer Science, by N. David Mermin, Cambridge University
Press, 2007.
At the graduate or research level
• Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, by Michael A. Nielsen
and Isaac L. Chuang, Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Part 2: Category theory for quantum computing

In physics, in the 1970s, Penrose used graphical language to represent


linear operators, their products, and tensor products: boxes for operators,
incoming wires for superscripts, and outgoing wires for subscripts. These
diagrams represented various categories, which are of importance in physics
2 This entire process is sometimes called a Bell measurement.
QUANTUM MECHANICS & CATEGORY THEORY 15

and quantum computing. Of particular importance are tensor categories,


also called monoidal categories, which have been used by S. Abramsky and
B. Coecke as a framework for quantum theory. Their categorical quantum
mechanics can be also viewed as a suitable quantum logic. We will give a brief
survey of monoidal categories. For more details see [3] and [1].

§5. Basic category theory. A category C consists of a class of objects, ob(C),


and a class of morphisms, hom(C), also called maps or arrows with specific
abstract properties. For every pair of objects, A and B, there is a class of
morphisms denoted by homC (A, B), or simply hom(A, B) when the category
is clear from the context. A morphism f has a domain dom(f) (also
called source) and a codomain cod(f) (also called target), which we write
f : dom(f) → cod(f). The morphisms are equipped with composition
◦, which is an associative operation that respects domain and codomain
information. That is,
(i) (f ◦ g) ◦ h = f ◦ (g ◦ h),
where f : A → B, g : D → A, and h : C → D. For every object A, the set
hom(A, A) contains the identity morphism idA such that for every f : A → B,
we have
(ii) f ◦ idA = f
and
(iii) idB ◦ f = f.
The equations (i)–(iii) can be viewed as the axioms for the categories. The
opposite category (also called dual category) of C is formed by reversing the
morphisms, that is, by interchanging the domain and the codomain of each
morphism. It is denoted by C op . A category C is called small if both ob(C) and
hom(C) are sets, and it is called locally small is for every pair of objects A, B,
the class hom(A, B) is a set.
A morphism f : A → B is called a monomorphism or monic if f ◦ g1 = f ◦ g2
implies g1 = g2 for all morphisms g1 , g2 : C → A. A morphism f : A → B has
a left inverse, also called a retraction of f, if there is a morphism g : B → A such
that g ◦ f = idA . Clearly, a morphism with a left inverse is a monomorphism.
The converse may not be true. A morphism f : A → B is called an epimorphism
or epic if g1 ◦ f = g2 ◦ f implies g1 = g2 for all morphisms g1 , g2 : B → C . A
morphism f : A → B has a right inverse, also called a section of f, if there is a
morphism g : B → A such that f ◦ g = idB . A morphism with a right inverse
is an epimorphism, but the converse may not be true. If a morphism has both a
left inverse and a right inverse, then the two inverses are equal. Hence we have
the following definition. A morphism f : A → B is called an isomorphism if
there exists a morphism g : B → A such that f ◦ g = idB and g ◦ f = idA . If
16 JENNIFER CHUBB AND VALENTINA HARIZANOV

it exists, g is unique and is called the inverse of f, and hence f is the inverse
of g.
Examples of well-known categories include the category of sets as objects
with functions as morphisms, the category of vector spaces as objects with
linear maps as morphisms, and the category of Hilbert spaces as objects with
unitary transformations as morphisms. In the graphical representation, object
variables label edges (“wires”) and morphism variables label nodes (“boxes”).
The composition is represented by connecting the outgoing edge of one diagram
to the incoming edge of another, while the identity morphism is represented as
a continuing edge.
Functors capture the notion of a homomorphism between two categories.
They preserve identity morphisms and composition of morphisms. More
precisely, a functor Φ from a category C to a category D is a function that maps
every object A of C to an object Φ(A) of D, as well as every morphism of C to
a corresponding morphism of D such that the following is satisfied. For every
pair A, B of objects from C, each morphism f ∈ hom(A, B) in C is mapped to
a morphism Φ(f) ∈ hom(Φ(A), Φ(B)) in D such that

Φ(g ◦ h) = Φ(g) ◦ Φ(h) ∧ Φ(idA ) = idΦ(A) .

A functor from C to D is also called a covariant functor, in order to distinguish


it from a contravariant functor, which reverses the order of composition. A
contravariant functor Ψ from C to D is a map that associates to each object A
in C an object Ψ(A) in D, and associates to each morphism f ∈ hom(A, B) in
C a morphism Ψ(f) ∈ hom(Ψ(B), Ψ(A)) in D such that

Ψ(g ◦ h) = Ψ(h) ◦ Ψ(g) ∧ Ψ(idA ) = idΨ(A) .

A functor Φ between locally small categories C and D is called faithful if it is


injective when restricted to each set of morphisms that have a given domain
and codomain. That is, for every pair A, B of objects in C, the induced function

ΦA,B : homC (A, B) → homD (Φ(A), Φ(B))

is injective. On the other hand, a faithful functor may not be injective on


objects or morphisms. A functor Φ is called full if the induced functions ΦA,B
are surjective.
Natural transformations capture the notion of a homomorphism between
two functors. That is, given two categories, C and D, and two functors from C
to D, Φ and Ψ, a natural transformation N : Φ → Ψ consists of the family of
morphisms for every object A of C, A : Φ(A) → Ψ(A), such that for every
f ∈ homC (A, B), we have

Ψ(f) ◦ A = B ◦ Φ(f).
QUANTUM MECHANICS & CATEGORY THEORY 17

The content of the equation is captured by the following diagram.


A
Φ(A) > Ψ(A)
Φ(f) Ψ(f)
∨ ∨
B
Φ(B) > Ψ(B)

§6. Monoidal categories. A monoidal category captures the notion of a


tensor product as a binary operation of objects, A ⊗ B, and of morphisms,
f ⊗ g. The domain of f ⊗ g is the tensor product of the domains of f and g,
and the codomain of f ⊗ g is the tensor product of the codomains of f and g.
The tensor product of objects is associative in the sense that for every triple
(A, B, C ) of objects, there is an isomorphism
αA,B,C : (A ⊗ B) ⊗ C → A ⊗ (B ⊗ C ).
The tensor product is a bifunctor, which means that it satisfies the following
equations for morphisms:
(f1 ⊗ f2 ) ◦ (f3 ⊗ f4 ) = (f1 ◦ f3 ) ⊗ (f2 ◦ f4 )
and
idA⊗B = idA ⊗ idB .

(See Coecke’s article in this volume for a wire diagram representation of this
equation.)
A monoidal category also has a constant unit object denoted by I . For every
object A, there is an isomorphism (left)
A : I ⊗ A → A

and an isomorphism (right)

A : A ⊗ I → A.
For morphisms f : A → A , g : B → B  , h : C → C  , we have
(f ⊗ (g ⊗ h)) ◦ αA,B.C = αA ,B  .C  ◦ (f ⊗ g) ⊗ h),
f ◦ A = A ◦ (idI ⊗ f),
f◦ A = A ◦ (f ⊗ idI ).
In addition, the following triangle axiom is satisfied for every pair of objects
A, B:

A ⊗ idB = (idA ⊗ B ) ◦ αA,I,B .


18 JENNIFER CHUBB AND VALENTINA HARIZANOV

Both sides map (A ⊗ I ) ⊗ B to A ⊗ B. This equation is captured in the


following diagram.
αA,I,B
(A ⊗ I ) ⊗ B > A ⊗ (I ⊗ B)

A ⊗idB > idA ⊗B


<
A⊗B

Also, the following pentagon axiom is satisfied for every quadruple of objects
A, B, C, D:
(idA ⊗ αB,C,D ) ◦ (αA,B⊗C,D ◦ (αA,B,C ⊗ idD )) = αA,B.C ⊗D ◦ αA⊗B,C,D .
Both sides map ((A ⊗ B) ⊗ C ) ⊗ D to A ⊗ (B ⊗ (C ⊗ D)). This relationship
is visualized in the following diagram.
αA,B⊗C,D
(A ⊗ (B ⊗ C )) ⊗ D > A ⊗ ((B ⊗ C ) ⊗ D)

αA,B,C ⊗idD idA ⊗αB,C,D

((A ⊗ B) ⊗ C ) ⊗ D A ⊗ (B ⊗ (C ⊗ D))
>

αA⊗B,C,D > αA,B,C ⊗D


(A ⊗ B) ⊗ (C ⊗ D)

In the graphical language, the tensor product of objects is represented


by parallel wires (input or output) from the bottom to the top, and the
unit object is represented by no wire. Tensor product of morphisms is
represented by stacking their diagrams. Examples of monoidal categories
are vector spaces, or Hilbert spaces, with either direct sum or tensor product,
as well as sets with direct products or disjoint unions. When no additional
properties are assumed for a monoidal category, we often call it planar monoidal
category.
Joyal and Street [2] established a coherence theorem for planar monoidal
categories, which captures the correspondence between the formal language
and the graphical language we described. The formal language of categories
uses object variables and morphism variables, and object constants (such
as I ) and morphism constants (such as idA ), and operation symbols (such
as ◦ and ⊗). These are used to form terms and equations (formulas). The
coherence theorem of Joyal and Street states that an equation in the language
of monoidal categories follows from the axioms of monoidal categories if and
only if it holds in the graphical language, up to planar equivalence. Roughly
speaking, here, a diagram D1 is planar equivalent to a diagram D2 if it is
possible to transform D1 to D2 by continuously moving the boxes and wires
of D1 (without crossing or cutting). Other coherence theorem for special
QUANTUM MECHANICS & CATEGORY THEORY 19

categories are of the similar nature. The part of a coherence theorem that states
that an equation following from the axioms holds in the graphical language
is called a soundness theorem, and its converse is called a completness theorem.
Soundness is guaranteed by assuring that the axioms hold in the graphical
language.
A braided monoidal category is a monoidal category with a family of
isomorphisms for every pair of objects A, B,
A,B : A ⊗ B → B ⊗ A.
−1
Hence A,B exists, where
−1
A,B : B ⊗ A → A ⊗ B.
Two hexagon axioms are satisfied for every triple of objects A, B, C :
(idB ⊗ A,C ) ◦ αB,A,C ◦ ( A,B ⊗ idC ) = αB,C,A ◦ A,B⊗C ◦ αA,B,C
and
−1 −1 −1
(idB ⊗ C,A ) ◦ αB,A,C ◦ ( B,A ⊗ idC ) = αB,C,A ◦ B⊗C,A ◦ αA,B,C .
The first of these axioms is captured in the diagram below.
αB,A,C
(B ⊗ A) ⊗ C > B ⊗ (A ⊗ C )

A,B ⊗idC idB ⊗ A,C

(A ⊗ B) ⊗ C B ⊗ (C ⊗ A)

αA,B,C αB,C,A

A ⊗ (B ⊗ C ) > (B ⊗ C ) ⊗ A
A,B⊗C

It follows that
−1
A,B ◦ A,B = idA⊗B .
Graphical language is extended to picture braiding A,B and is represented by
an under- (over-) crossing.

A symmetric monoidal category is a braided monoidal category where the


−1
braiding A,B is the inverse B,A . It is called symmetry and is graphically
represented by a crossing.
For monoidal categories C and D, a functor Φ : C → D is called a monoidal
functor if there are also morphisms φA,B : Φ(A) ⊗ Φ(B) → Φ(A ⊗ B) and
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Table

ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES

DE

M. DE BALZAC

PARIS, IMPRIMÉ PAR LACRAMPE ET COMP.


LA

COMÉDIE HUMAINE
QUINZIÈME VOLUME

DEUXIÈME PARTIE

ÉTUDES PHILOSOPHIQUES
ÉTUDES

PHILOSOPHIQUES

Massimilla Doni.—Gambara.—L’Enfant maudit.—Les Marana.


—Adieu.—Le Réquisitionnaire.—El Verdugo.—Un Drame
au bord de la mer.—L’Auberge Rouge.—L’Élixir de longue vie.
—Maître Cornélius.—Sur Catherine de Médicis (première
partie): le Martyr calviniste.

PARIS,
FURNE,
J.-J. DUBOCHET ET CIE,
RUE SAINT-ANDRÉ-DES-ARTS,
RUE RICHELIEU, 60;
55;

J. HETZEL,
RUE DE MÉNARS, 10.

1845.
LE COMTE D’HÉROUVILLE

L’ENFANT MAUDIT.
ÉTUDES

P H I L OS OP H I QU E S.
MASSIMILLA DONI.

A JACQUES STRUNZ.

Mon cher Strunz, il y aurait de l’ingratitude à ne pas


attacher votre nom à l’une des deux œuvres que je n’aurais
pu faire sans votre patiente complaisance et vos bons soins.
Trouvez donc ici un témoignage de ma reconnaissante amitié,
pour le courage avec lequel vous avez essayé, peut-être sans
succès, de m’initier aux profondeurs de la science musicale.
Vous m’aurez toujours appris ce que le génie cache de
difficultés et de travaux dans ces poëmes qui sont pour nous
la source de plaisirs divins. Vous m’avez aussi procuré plus
d’une fois le petit divertissement de rire aux dépens de plus
d’un prétendu connaisseur. Aucuns me taxent d’ignorance, ne
soupçonnant ni les conseils que je dois à l’un des meilleurs
auteurs de feuilletons sur les œuvres musicales, ni votre
consciencieuse assistance. Peut-être ai-je été le plus infidèle
des secrétaires? S’il en était ainsi, je ferais certainement un
traître traducteur sans le savoir, et je veux néanmoins pouvoir
toujours me dire un de vos amis.

Comme le savent les connaisseurs, la noblesse vénitienne est la


première de l’Europe. Son Livre d’or a précédé les Croisades, temps
où Venise, débris de la Rome impériale et chrétienne qui se plongea
dans les eaux pour échapper aux Barbares, déjà puissante, illustre
déjà, dominait le monde politique et commercial. A quelques
exceptions près, aujourd’hui cette noblesse est entièrement ruinée.
Parmi les gondoliers qui conduisent les Anglais à qui l’Histoire
montre là leur avenir, il se trouve des fils d’anciens doges dont la
race est plus ancienne que celle des souverains. Sur un pont par où
passera votre gondole, si vous allez à Venise, vous admirerez une
sublime jeune fille mal vêtue, pauvre enfant qui appartiendra peut-
être à l’une des plus illustres races patriciennes. Quand un peuple
de rois en est là, nécessairement il s’y rencontre des caractères
bizarres. Il n’y a rien d’extraordinaire à ce qu’il jaillisse des étincelles
parmi les cendres. Destinées à justifier l’étrangeté des personnages
en action dans cette histoire, ces réflexions n’iront pas plus loin, car
il n’est rien de plus insupportable que les redites de ceux qui parlent
de Venise après tant de grands poëtes et tant de petits voyageurs.
L’intérêt du récit exigeait seulement de constater l’opposition la plus
vive de l’existence humaine: cette grandeur et cette misère qui se
voient là chez certains hommes comme dans la plupart des
habitations. Les nobles de Venise et ceux de Gênes, comme
autrefois ceux de Pologne, ne prenaient point de titres. S’appeler
Quirini, Doria, Brignole, Morosini, Sauli, Mocenigo, Fieschi
(Fiesque), Cornaro, Spinola, suffisait à l’orgueil le plus haut. Tout se
corrompt, quelques familles sont titrées aujourd’hui. Néanmoins,
dans le temps où les nobles des républiques aristocratiques étaient
égaux, il existait à Gênes un titre de prince pour la famille Doria qui
possédait Amalfi en toute souveraineté, et un titre semblable à
Venise, légitimé par une ancienne possession des Facino Cane,
prince de Varèse. Les Grimaldi, qui devinrent souverains,
s’emparèrent de Monaco beaucoup plus tard. Le dernier des Cane
de la branche aînée disparut de Venise trente ans avant la chute de
la république, condamné pour des crimes plus ou moins criminels.
Ceux à qui revenait cette principauté nominale, les Cane Memmi,
tombèrent dans l’indigence pendant la fatale période de 1796 à
1814. Dans la vingtième année de ce siècle, ils n’étaient plus
représentés que par un jeune homme ayant nom Emilio, et par un
palais qui passe pour un des plus beaux ornements du Canale
Grande. Cet enfant de la belle Venise avait pour toute fortune cet
inutile palais et quinze cents livres de rente provenant d’une maison
de campagne située sur la Brenta, le dernier bien de ceux que sa
famille posséda jadis en Terre-Ferme, et vendue au gouvernement
autrichien. Cette rente viagère sauvait au bel Émilio la honte de
recevoir, comme beaucoup de nobles, l’indemnité de vingt sous par
jour, due à tous les patriciens indigents, stipulée dans le traité de
cession à l’Autriche.
Au commencement de la saison d’hiver, ce jeune seigneur était
encore dans une campagne située au pied des Alpes Tyroliennes, et
achetée au printemps dernier par la duchesse Cataneo. La maison
bâtie par Palladio pour les Tiepolo consiste en un pavillon carré du
style le plus pur. C’est un escalier grandiose, des portiques en
marbre sur chaque face, des péristyles à voûtes couvertes de
fresques et rendues légères par l’outremer du ciel où volent de
délicieuses figures, des ornements gras d’exécution, mais si bien
proportionnés que l’édifice les porte comme une femme porte sa
coiffure, avec une facilité qui réjouit l’œil; enfin cette gracieuse
noblesse qui distingue à Venise les procuraties de la Piazetta. Des
stucs admirablement dessinés entretiennent dans les appartements
un froid qui rend l’atmosphère aimable. Les galeries extérieures
peintes à fresque forment abat-jour. Partout règne ce frais pavé
vénitien où les marbres découpés se changent en d’inaltérables
fleurs. L’ameublement, comme celui des palais italiens, offrait les
plus belles soieries richement employées, et de précieux tableaux
bien placés: quelques-uns du prêtre génois dit il Capucino, plusieurs
de Léonard de Vinci, de Carlo Dolci, de Tintoretto et de Titien. Les
jardins étagés présentent ces merveilles où l’or a été métamorphosé
en grottes de rocailles, en cailloutages qui sont comme la folie du
travail, en terrasses bâties par les fées, en bosquets sévères de ton,
où les cyprès hauts sur patte, les pins triangulaires, le triste olivier,
sont déjà habilement mélangés aux orangers, aux lauriers, aux
myrtes; en bassins clairs où nagent des poissons d’azur et de
cinabre. Quoi que l’on puisse dire à l’avantage des jardins anglais,
ces arbres en parasols, ces ifs taillés, ce luxe des productions de
l’art marié si finement à celui d’une nature habillée; ces cascades à
gradins de marbre où l’eau se glisse timidement et semble comme
une écharpe enlevée par le vent, mais toujours renouvelée; ces
personnages en plomb doré qui meublent discrètement de silencieux
asiles: enfin ce palais hardi qui fait point de vue de toutes parts en
élevant sa dentelle au pied des Alpes; ces vives pensées qui
animent la pierre, le bronze et les végétaux, ou se dessinent en
parterres, cette poétique prodigalité seyait à l’amour d’une duchesse
et d’un joli jeune homme, lequel est une œuvre de poésie fort
éloignée des fins de la brutale nature. Quiconque comprend la
fantaisie, aurait voulu voir sur l’un de ces beaux escaliers, à côté
d’un vase à bas-reliefs circulaires, quelque négrillon habillé à mi-
corps d’un tonnelet en étoffe rouge, tenant d’une main un parasol
au-dessus de la tête de la duchesse, et de l’autre la queue de sa
longue robe pendant qu’elle écoutait une parole d’Emilio Memmi. Et
que n’aurait pas gagné le Vénitien à être vêtu comme un de ces
sénateurs peints par Titien? Hélas! dans ce palais de fée, assez
semblable à celui des Peschiere de Gênes, la Cataneo obéissait aux
firmans de Victorine et des modistes françaises. Elle portait une robe
de mousseline et un chapeau de paille de riz, de jolis souliers gorge
de pigeon, des bas de fil que le plus léger zéphyr eût emportés; elle
avait sur les épaules un schall de dentelle noire! Mais ce qui ne se
comprendra jamais à Paris, où les femmes sont serrées dans leurs
robes comme des demoiselles dans leurs fourreaux annelés, c’est le
délicieux laissez-aller avec lequel cette belle fille de la Toscane
portait le vêtement français, elle l’avait italianisé. La Française met
un incroyable sérieux à sa jupe, tandis qu’une Italienne s’en occupe
peu, ne la défend par aucun regard gourmé, car elle se sait sous la
protection d’un seul amour, passion sainte et sérieuse pour elle,
comme pour autrui.
Étendue sur un sopha, vers onze heures du matin, au retour
d’une promenade, et devant une table où se voyaient les restes d’un
élégant déjeuner, la duchesse Cataneo laissait son amant maître de
cette mousseline sans lui dire: chut! au moindre geste. Sur une
bergère à ses côtés, Emilio tenait une des mains de la duchesse
entre ses deux mains, et la regardait avec un entier abandon. Ne
demandez pas s’ils s’aimaient; ils s’aimaient trop. Ils n’en étaient pas
à lire dans le livre comme Paul et Françoise; loin de là, Emilio n’osait
dire: Lisons! A la lueur de ces yeux où brillaient deux prunelles
vertes tigrées par des fils d’or qui partaient du centre comme les
éclats d’une fêlure, et communiquaient au regard un doux
scintillement d’étoile, il sentait en lui-même une volupté nerveuse qui
le faisait arriver au spasme. Par moments, il lui suffisait de voir les
beaux cheveux noirs de cette tête adorée serrés par un simple
cercle d’or, s’échappant en tresses luisantes de chaque côté d’un
front volumineux, pour écouter dans ses oreilles les battements
précipités de son sang soulevé par vagues, et menaçant de faire
éclater les vaisseaux du cœur. Par quel phénomène moral l’âme
s’emparait-elle si bien de son corps qu’il ne se sentait plus en lui-
même, mais tout en cette femme à la moindre parole qu’elle disait
d’une voix qui troublait en lui les sources de la vie? Si, dans la
solitude, une femme de beauté médiocre sans cesse étudiée devient
sublime et imposante, peut-être une femme aussi magnifiquement
belle que l’était la duchesse arrivait-elle à stupéfier un jeune homme
chez qui l’exaltation trouvait des ressorts neufs, car elle absorbait
réellement cette jeune âme.
Héritière des Doni de Florence, Massimilla avait épousé le duc
sicilien Cataneo. En moyennant ce mariage, sa vieille mère, morte
depuis, avait voulu la rendre riche et heureuse selon les coutumes
de la vie florentine. Elle avait pensé que sortie du couvent pour
entrer dans la vie, sa fille accomplirait selon les lois de l’amour ce
second mariage de cœur qui est tout pour une Italienne. Mais
Massimilla Doni avait pris au couvent un grand goût pour la vie
religieuse, et quand elle eut donné sa foi devant les autels au duc de
Cataneo, elle se contenta chrétiennement d’en être la femme. Ce fut
la chose impossible. Cataneo, qui ne voulait qu’une duchesse,
trouva fort sot d’être un mari; dès que Massimilla se plaignit de ses
façons, il lui dit tranquillement de se mettre en quête d’un primo
cavaliere servante, et lui offrit ses services pour lui en amener
plusieurs à choisir. La duchesse pleura, le duc la quitta. Massimilla
regarda le monde qui se pressait autour d’elle, fut conduite par sa
mère à la Pergola, dans quelques maisons diplomatiques, aux
Cascine, partout où l’on rencontrait de jeunes et jolis cavaliers, elle
ne trouva personne qui lui plût, et se mit à voyager. Elle perdit sa
mère, hérita, porta le deuil, vint à Venise, et y vit Emilio, qui passa
devant sa loge en échangeant avec elle un regard de curiosité. Tout
fut dit. Le Vénitien se sentit comme foudroyé; tandis qu’une voix cria:
le voilà! dans les oreilles de la duchesse. Partout ailleurs, deux
personnes prudentes et instruites se seraient examinées, flairées;
mais ces deux ignorances se confondirent comme deux substances
de la même nature qui n’en font qu’une seule en se rencontrant.
Massimilla devint aussitôt vénitienne et acheta le palais qu’elle avait
loué sur le Canareggio. Puis, ne sachant à quoi employer ses
revenus, elle avait acquis aussi Rivalta, cette campagne où elle était
alors. Emilio, présenté par la Vulpato à la Cataneo, vint pendant tout
l’hiver très-respectueusement dans la loge de son amie. Jamais
amour ne fut plus violent dans deux âmes, ni plus timide dans ses
expressions. Ces deux enfants tremblaient l’un devant l’autre.
Massimilla ne coquetait point, n’avait ni secundo ni terzo, ni patito.
Occupée d’un sourire et d’une parole, elle admirait son jeune
Vénitien au visage pointu, au nez long et mince, aux yeux noirs, au
front noble, qui, malgré ses naïfs encouragements, ne vint chez elle
qu’après trois mois employés à s’apprivoiser l’un l’autre. L’été
montra son ciel oriental, la duchesse se plaignit d’aller seule à
Rivalta. Heureux et inquiet tout à la fois du tête-à-tête, Emilio avait
accompagné Massimilla dans sa retraite. Ce joli couple y était
depuis six mois.
A vingt ans, Massimilla n’avait pas, sans de grands remords,
immolé ses scrupules religieux à l’amour; mais elle s’était lentement
désarmée et souhaitait accomplir ce mariage de cœur, tant vanté par
sa mère, au moment où Emilio tenait sa belle et noble main, longue,
satinée, blanche, terminée par des ongles bien dessinés et colorés,
comme si elle avait reçu d’Asie un peu de l’henné qui sert aux
femmes des sultans à se les teindre en rose vif. Un malheur ignoré
de Massimilla, mais qui faisait cruellement souffrir Émilio, s’était jeté
bizarrement entre eux. Massimilla, quoique jeune, avait cette
majesté que la tradition mythologique attribue à Junon, seule déesse
à laquelle la mythologie n’ait pas donné d’amant, car Diane a été
aimée, la chaste Diane a aimé! Jupiter seul a pu ne pas perdre
contenance devant sa divine moitié, sur laquelle se sont modelées
beaucoup de ladies en Angleterre. Emilio mettait sa maîtresse
beaucoup trop haut pour y atteindre. Peut-être un an plus tard ne
serait-il plus en proie à cette noble maladie qui n’attaque que les
très-jeunes gens et les vieillards. Mais comme celui qui dépasse le
but en est aussi loin que celui dont le trait n’y arrive pas, la duchesse
se trouvait entre un mari qui se savait si loin du but qu’il ne s’en
souciait plus, et un amant qui le franchissait si rapidement avec les
blanches ailes de l’ange qu’il ne pouvait plus y revenir. Heureuse
d’être aimée, Massimilla jouissait du désir sans en imaginer la fin;
tandis que son amant, malheureux dans le bonheur, amenait de
temps en temps par une promesse sa jeune amie au bord de ce que
tant de femmes nomment l’abîme, et se voyait obligé de cueillir les
fleurs qui le bordent, sans pouvoir faire autre chose que les effeuiller
en contenant dans son cœur une rage qu’il n’osait exprimer. Tous
deux s’étaient promenés en se redisant au matin un hymne d’amour
comme en chantaient les oiseaux nichés dans les arbres. Au retour,
le jeune homme, dont la situation ne peut se peindre qu’en le
comparant à ces anges auxquels les peintres ne donnent qu’une
tête et des ailes, s’était senti si violemment amoureux qu’il avait mis
en doute l’entier dévouement de la duchesse, afin de l’amener à
dire: «Quelle preuve en veux-tu?» Ce mot avait été jeté d’un air
royal, et Memmi baisait avec ardeur cette belle main ignorante. Tout
à coup, il se leva furieux contre lui-même, et laissa Massimilla. La
duchesse resta dans sa pose nonchalante sur le sopha, mais elle y
pleura, se demandant en quoi, belle et jeune, elle déplaisait à Emilio.
De son côté, le pauvre Memmi donnait de la tête contre les arbres
comme une corneille coiffée. Un valet cherchait en ce moment le
jeune Vénitien, et courait après lui pour lui donner une lettre arrivée
par un exprès.
Marco Vendramini, nom qui dans le dialecte vénitien, où se
suppriment certaines finales, se prononce également Vendramin,
son seul ami lui apprenait que Marco Facino Cane, prince de
Varèse, était mort dans un hôpital de Paris. La preuve du décès était
arrivée. Ainsi les Cane Memmi devenaient princes de Varèse. Aux
yeux des deux amis, un titre sans argent ne signifiant rien,
Vendramin annonçait à Emilio comme une nouvelle beaucoup plus
importante, l’engagement à la Fenice du fameux ténor Genovese, et
de la célèbre signora Tinti. Sans achever la lettre, qu’il mit dans sa
poche en la froissant, Emilio courut annoncer à la duchesse Cataneo
la grande nouvelle, en oubliant son héritage héraldique. La
duchesse ignorait la singulière histoire qui recommandait la Tinti à la
curiosité de l’Italie, le prince la lui dit en quelques mots. Cette illustre
cantatrice était une simple servante d’auberge, dont la voix
merveilleuse avait surpris un grand seigneur sicilien en voyage. La
beauté de cette enfant, qui avait alors douze ans, s’étant trouvée
digne de la voix, le grand seigneur avait eu la constance de faire
élever cette petite personne comme Louis XV fit jadis élever
mademoiselle de Romans. Il avait attendu patiemment que la voix
de Clara fût exercée par un fameux professeur, et qu’elle eût seize
ans pour jouir de tous les trésors si laborieusement cultivés. En
débutant l’année dernière, la Tinti avait ravi les trois capitales de
l’Italie les plus difficiles à satisfaire.
—Je suis bien sûre que le grand seigneur n’est pas mon mari, dit
la duchesse.
Aussitôt les chevaux furent commandés, et la Cataneo partit à
l’instant pour Venise, afin d’assister à l’ouverture de la saison d’hiver.
Par une belle soirée du mois de novembre, le nouveau prince de
Varèse traversait donc la lagune de Mestre à Venise, entre la ligne
de poteaux aux couleurs autrichiennes qui marque la route
concédée par la douane aux gondoles. Tout en regardant la gondole
de la Cataneo menée par des laquais en livrée, et qui sillonnait la
mer à une portée de fusil en avant de lui, le pauvre Emilio, conduit
par un vieux gondolier qui avait conduit son père au temps où
Venise vivait encore, ne pouvait repousser les amères réflexions que
lui suggérait l’investiture de son titre.
«Quelle raillerie de la fortune! Être prince et avoir quinze cents
francs de rente. Posséder l’un des plus beaux palais du monde, et
ne pouvoir disposer des marbres, des escaliers, des peintures, des
sculptures, qu’un décret autrichien venait de rendre inaliénables!
Vivre sur un pilotis en bois de Campêche estimé près d’un million et
ne pas avoir de mobilier! Être le maître de galeries somptueuses, et
habiter une chambre au-dessus de la dernière frise arabesque bâtie
avec des marbres rapportés de la Morée, que déjà, sous les
Romains, un Memmius avait parcourue en conquérant! Voir dans
une des plus magnifiques églises de Venise ses ancêtres sculptés
sur leurs tombeaux en marbres précieux, au milieu d’une chapelle
ornée des peintures de Titien, de Tintoret, des deux Palma, de
Bellini, de Paul Véronèse, et ne pouvoir vendre à l’Angleterre un
Memmi de marbre pour donner du pain au prince de Varèse!
Genovese, le fameux ténor, aura, dans une saison, pour ses
roulades, le capital de la rente avec laquelle vivrait heureux un fils
des Memmius, sénateurs romains, aussi anciens que les César et
les Sylla. Genovese peut fumer un houka des Indes, et le prince de
Varèse ne peut consumer des cigares à discrétion!»
Et il jeta le bout de son cigare dans la mer. Le prince de Varèse
trouve ses cigares chez la Cataneo, à laquelle il voudrait apporter
les richesses du monde; la duchesse étudiait tous ses caprices,
heureuse de les satisfaire! Il fallait y faire son seul repas, le souper,
car son argent passait à son habillement et à son entrée à la Fenice.
Encore était-il obligé de prélever cent francs par an pour le vieux
gondolier de son père, qui, pour le mener à ce prix, ne vivait que de
riz. Enfin, il fallait aussi pouvoir payer les tasses de café noir que
tous les matins il prenait au café Florian pour se soutenir jusqu’au
soir dans une excitation nerveuse, sur l’abus de laquelle il comptait
pour mourir, comme Vendramin comptait, lui, sur l’opium.
—Et je suis prince! En se disant ce dernier mot, Emilio Memmi
jeta, sans l’achever, la lettre de Marco Vendramini dans la lagune, où
elle flotta comme un esquif de papier lancé par un enfant.—Mais
Emilio, reprit-il, n’a que vingt-trois ans. Il vaut mieux ainsi que lord
Wellington goutteux, que le régent paralytique, que la famille
impériale d’Autriche attaquée du haut mal, que le roi de France...
Mais en pensant au roi de France, le front d’Emilio se plissa, son
teint d’ivoire jaunit, des larmes roulèrent dans ses yeux noirs,
humectèrent ses longs cils; il souleva d’une main digne d’être peinte
par Titien son épaisse chevelure brune, et reporta son regard sur la
gondole de la Cataneo.
—La raillerie que se permet le sort envers moi se rencontre
encore dans mon amour, se dit-il. Mon cœur et mon imagination sont
pleins de trésors, Massimilla les ignore; elle est Florentine, elle
m’abandonnera. Être glacé près d’elle lorsque sa voix et son regard
développent en moi des sensations célestes! En voyant sa gondole
à quelque cent palmes de la mienne, il me semble qu’on me place
un fer chaud dans le cœur. Un fluide invisible coule dans mes nerfs
et les embrase, un nuage se répand sur mes yeux, l’air me semble
avoir la couleur qu’il avait à Rivalta, quand le jour passait à travers
un store de soie rouge, et que, sans qu’elle me vît, je l’admirais
rêveuse et souriant avec finesse, comme la Monna Lisa de
Léonardo. Ou mon altesse finira par un coup de pistolet, ou le fils
des Cane suivra le conseil de son vieux Carmagnola: nous nous
ferons matelots, pirates, et nous nous amuserons à voir combien de
temps nous vivrons avant d’être pendus!
Le prince prit un nouveau cigare et contempla les arabesques de
sa fumée livrée au vent, comme pour voir dans leurs caprices une
répétition de sa dernière pensée. De loin, il distinguait déjà les
pointes mauresques des ornements qui couronnaient son palais; il
redevint triste. La gondole de la duchesse avait disparu dans le
Canareggio. Les fantaisies d’une vie romanesque et périlleuse, prise
comme dénoûment de son amour, s’éteignirent avec son cigare, et
la gondole de son amie ne lui marqua plus son chemin. Il vit alors le
présent tel qu’il était: un palais sans âme, une âme sans action sur
le corps, une principauté sans argent, un corps vide et un cœur
plein, mille antithèses désespérantes. L’infortuné pleurait sa vieille
Venise, comme la pleurait plus amèrement encore Vendramini, car
une mutuelle et profonde douleur et un même sort avaient engendré
une mutuelle et vive amitié entre ces deux jeunes gens, débris de
deux illustres familles. Emilio ne put s’empêcher de penser aux jours
où le palais Memmi vomissait la lumière par toutes ses croisées et
retentissait de musiques portées au loin sur l’onde adriatique; où l’on
voyait à ses poteaux des centaines de gondoles attachées; où l’on
entendait sur son perron baisé par les flots les masques élégants et
les dignitaires de la République se pressant en foule; où ses salons
et sa galerie étaient enrichis par une assemblée intriguée et
intriguant; où la grande salle des festins meublée de tables rieuses,
et ses galeries au pourtour aérien pleines de musique, semblaient
contenir Venise entière allant et venant sur les escaliers
retentissants de rires. Le ciseau des meilleurs artistes avait de siècle
en siècle sculpté le bronze qui supportait alors les vases au long col
ou ventrus achetés en Chine, et celui des candélabres aux mille
bougies. Chaque pays avait fourni sa part du luxe qui parait les
murailles et les plafonds. Aujourd’hui les murs dépouillés de leurs
belles étoffes, les plafonds mornes, se taisaient et pleuraient. Plus
de tapis de Turquie, plus de lustres festonnés de fleurs, plus de
statues, plus de tableaux, plus de joie ni d’argent, ce grand véhicule
de la joie! Venise, cette Londres du moyen-âge, tombait pierre à
pierre, homme à homme. La sinistre verdure que la mer entretient et
caresse au bas des palais, était alors aux yeux du prince comme
une frange noire que la nature y attachait en signe de mort. Enfin, un
grand poëte anglais était venu s’abattre sur Venise comme un
corbeau sur un cadavre, pour lui coasser en poésie lyrique, dans ce
premier et dernier langage des sociétés, les stances d’un De
Profundis! De la poésie anglaise jetée au front d’une ville qui avait
enfanté la poésie italienne!... Pauvre Venise!
Jugez quel dut être l’étonnement d’un jeune homme absorbé par
de telles pensées, au moment où Carmagnola s’écria:—Sérénissime
altesse, le palais brûle, ou les anciens doges y sont revenus. Voici
des lumières aux croisées de la galerie haute!
Le prince Emilio crut son rêve réalisé par un coup de baguette. A
la nuit tombante, le vieux gondolier put, en retenant sa gondole à la
première marche, aborder son jeune maître sans qu’il fût vu par
aucun des gens empressés dans le palais, et dont quelques-uns
bourdonnaient au perron comme des abeilles à l’entrée d’une ruche.
Emilio se glissa sous l’immense péristyle où se développait le plus
bel escalier de Venise et le franchit lestement pour connaître la
cause de cette singulière aventure. Tout un monde d’ouvriers se
hâtait d’achever l’ameublement et la décoration du palais. Le
premier étage, digne de l’ancienne splendeur de Venise, offrait à ses
regards les belles choses qu’Emilio rêvait un moment auparavant, et
la fée les avait disposées dans le meilleur goût. Une splendeur digne
des palais d’un roi parvenu éclatait jusque dans les plus minces
détails. Emilio se promenait sans que personne lui fît la moindre
observation, et il marchait de surprise en surprise. Curieux de voir ce
qui se passait au second étage, il monta, et trouva l’ameublement
fini. Les inconnus chargés par l’enchanteur de renouveler les
prodiges de Mille et une Nuits en faveur d’un pauvre prince italien,
remplaçaient quelques meubles mesquins apportés dans les
premiers moments. Le prince Emilio arriva dans la chambre à
coucher de l’appartement, qui lui sourit comme une conque d’où
Vénus serait sortie. Cette chambre était si délicieusement belle, si
bien pomponnée, si coquette, pleine de recherches si gracieuses,
qu’il s’alla plonger dans une bergère de bois doré devant laquelle on

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