In mathematics, a complex number is a number of the form
For example, 3 + 2i is a complex number, with real part 3 and imaginary part 2.
Complex numbers can be added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided like real numbers, but they have additional elegant properties. For example, real numbers alone do not provide a solution for every polynomial algebraic equation while complex numbers do.
In some fields (in particular, electrical engineering, where i is a symbol for current), complex numbers are written as a + bj.
Complex numbers are added, subtracted, and multiplied by formally applying the associative, commutative and distributive laws of algebra, together with the equation i 2 = −1:
Division of complex numbers can also be defined (see below). Thus, the set of complex numbers forms a field which, in contrast to the real numbers, is algebraically closed.
In mathematics, the adjective "complex" means that the field of complex numbers is the underlying number field considered, for example complex analysis, complex matrix, complex polynomial and complex Lie algebra.
So defined, the complex numbers form a field, the complex number field, denoted by C.
Since a complex number a + bi is uniquely specified by an ordered pair (a, b) of real numbers, the complex numbers are in one-to-one correspondence with points on a plane, called the complex plane.
We identify the real number a with the complex number (a, 0), and in this way the field of real numbers R becomes a subfield of C. The imaginary unit i is the complex number (0, 1).
In C, we have:
C can also be defined as the topological closure of the algebraic numbers or as the algebraic closure of R, both of which are described below.
A complex number can be viewed as a point or a position vector on a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system called the complex plane or Argand diagram (named after Jean-Robert Argand).
The Cartesian coordinates of the complex number are the real part x and the imaginary part y, while the polar coordinates are r = |z|, called the absolute value or modulus, and φ = arg(z), called the complex argument of z (mod-arg form). Together with Euler's formula we have
The notation cis φ is sometimes used for cos φ + i sin φ.
Note that the complex argument is unique modulo 2π, that is, if any two values of the complex argument exactly differ by an integer multiple of 2π, they are considered equivalent.
By simple trigonometric identities, we see that
Now the addition of two complex numbers is just the vector addition of two vectors, and the multiplication with a fixed complex number can be seen as a simultaneous rotation and stretching.
Multiplication with i corresponds to a counter clockwise rotation by 90 degrees ( radians). The geometric content of the equation i2 = −1 is that a sequence of two 90 degree rotations results in a 180 degree ( radians) rotation. Even the fact (−1) · (−1) = +1 from arithmetic can be understood geometrically as the combination of two 180 degree turns.
One can check readily that the absolute value has three important properties:
for all complex numbers z and w. It then follows, for example, that and . By defining the distance function d(z, w) = |z − w| we turn the complex numbers into a metric space and we can therefore talk about limits and continuity. The addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of complex numbers are then continuous operations. Unless anything else is said, this is always the metric being used on the complex numbers.
The complex conjugate of the complex number z = a + ib is defined to be a - ib, written as or . As seen in the figure, is the "reflection" of z about the real axis. The following can be checked:
The latter formula is the method of choice to compute the inverse of a complex number if it is given in rectangular coordinates.
That conjugation commutes with all the algebraic operations (and many functions; e.g. ) is rooted in the ambiguity in choice of i (−1 has two square roots); note, however, that conjugation is not differentiable (see holomorphic).
with real numbers a and b. The sum and product of two such matrices is again of this form. Every non-zero such matrix is invertible, and its inverse is again of this form. Therefore, the matrices of this form are a field. In fact, this is exactly the field of complex numbers. Every such matrix can be written as
a counter-clockwise rotation by 90 degrees. Note that the square of this latter matrix is indeed equal to −1.
The absolute value of a complex number expressed as a matrix is equal to the square root of the determinant of that matrix. If the matrix is viewed as a transformation of a plane, then the transformation rotates points through an angle equal to the argument of the complex number and scales by a factor equal to the complex number's absolute value. The conjugate of the complex number z corresponds to the transformation which rotates through the same angle as z but in the opposite direction, and scales in the same manner as z; this can be described by the transpose of the matrix corresponding to z.
If the matrix elements are themselves complex numbers, then the resulting algebra is that of the quaternions. In this way, the matrix representation can be seen as a way of expressing the Cayley-Dickson construction of algebras.
Choose in addition a point in the plane different from zero, which will be the unity, 1. Given two points A and B in the plane, their product is the point X in the plane such that the triangles with vertices 0, 1, A, and 0, B, X are similar.
Given a point A in the plane, its complex conjugate is a point X in the plane such that the triangles with vertices 0, 1, A and 0, 1, X are mirror image of each other.
R-linear maps C → C have the general form
The function
Indeed, the complex number field is the algebraic closure of the real number field, and Cauchy constructed complex numbers in this way. It can be identified as the quotient ring of the polynomial ring R* by the ideal generated by the polynomial X2 + 1:
Consequently, C contains many proper subfields which are isomorphic to C. Another consequence of this characterization is that the Galois group of C over the rational numbers is enormous, with cardinality equal to that of the power set of the continuum.
Given these properties, one can then define a topology on C by taking the sets
To see that these properties characterize C as a topological field, one notes that P ∪ {0} ∪ -P is an ordered Dedekind-complete field and thus can be identified with the real numbers R by a unique field isomorphism. The last property is easily seen to imply that the Galois group over the real numbers is of order two, completing the characterization.
Pontryagin has shown that the only connected locally compact topological fields are R and C. This gives another characterization of C as a topological field, since C can be distinguished from R by noting the nonzero complex numbers are connected whereas the nonzero real numbers are not.
The study of functions of a complex variable is known as complex analysis and has enormous practical use in applied mathematics as well as in other branches of mathematics. Often, the most natural proofs for statements in real analysis or even number theory employ techniques from complex analysis (see prime number theorem for an example). Unlike real functions which are commonly represented as two dimensional graphs, complex functions have four dimensional graphs and may usefully be illustrated by color coding a three dimensional graph to suggest four dimensions, or by animating the complex function's dynamic transformation of the complex plane.
In the root locus method, it is especially important whether the poles and zeros are in the left or right half planes, i.e. have real part greater than or less than zero. If a system has poles that are
If Fourier analysis is employed to write a given real-valued signal as a sum of periodic functions, these periodic functions are often written as the real part of complex valued functions of the form
In electrical engineering, the Fourier transform is used to analyze varying voltages and currents. The treatment of resistors, capacitors, and inductors can then be unified by introducing imaginary, frequency-dependent resistances for the latter two and combining all three in a single complex number called the impedance. (Electrical engineers and some physicists use the letter j for the imaginary unit since i is typically reserved for varying currents and may come into conflict with i.) This use is also extended into digital signal processing and digital image processing, which utilize digital versions of Fourier analysis (and Wavelet analysis) to transmit, compress, restore, and otherwise process digital audio signals, still images, and video signals.
Complex numbers became more prominent in the 16th century, when closed formulas for the roots of cubic and quartic polynomials were discovered by Italian mathematicians (see Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia, Gerolamo Cardano). It was soon realized that these formulas, even if one was only interested in real solutions, sometimes required the manipulation of square roots of negative numbers. For example, Tartaglia's cubic formula gives the following solution to the equation :
At first glance this looks like nonsense. However formal calculations with complex numbers show that the equation has solutions −i, and . Substituting these in turn for into the cubic formula and simplifying, one gets 0, 1 and −1 as the solutions of
This was doubly unsettling since not even negative numbers were considered to be on firm ground at the time. The term "imaginary" for these quantities was coined by René Descartes in 1637 and was meant to be derogatory (see imaginary number for a discussion of the "reality" of complex numbers). A further source of confusion was that the equation seemed to be capriciously inconsistent with the algebraic identity , which is valid for positive real numbers a and b, and which was also used in complex number calculations with one of a, b positive and the other negative. The incorrect use of this identity (and the related identity ) in the case when both a and b are negative even bedeviled Euler. This difficulty eventually led to the convention of using the special symbol i in place of to guard against this mistake.
The 18th century saw the labors of Abraham de Moivre and Leonhard Euler. To De Moivre is due (1730) the well-known formula which bears his name, de Moivre's formula:
and to Euler (1748) Euler's formula of complex analysis:
The existence of complex numbers was not completely accepted until the geometrical interpretation (see below) had been described by Caspar Wessel in 1799; it was rediscovered several years later and popularized by Carl Friedrich Gauss, and as a result the theory of complex numbers received a notable expansion. The idea of the graphic representation of complex numbers had appeared, however, as early as 1685, in Wallis's De Algebra tractatus.
Wessel's memoir appeared in the Proceedings of the Copenhagen Academy for 1799, and is exceedingly clear and complete, even in comparison with modern works. He also considers the sphere, and gives a quaternion theory from which he develops a complete spherical trigonometry. In 1804 the Abbé Buée independently came upon the same idea which Wallis had suggested, that should represent a unit line, and its negative, perpendicular to the real axis. Buée's paper was not published until 1806, in which year Jean-Robert Argand also issued a pamphlet on the same subject. It is to Argand's essay that the scientific foundation for the graphic representation of complex numbers is now generally referred. Nevertheless, in 1831 Gauss found the theory quite unknown, and in 1832 published his chief memoir on the subject, thus bringing it prominently before the mathematical world. Mention should also be made of an excellent little treatise by Mourey (1828), in which the foundations for the theory of directional numbers are scientifically laid. The general acceptance of the theory is not a little due to the labors of Augustin Louis Cauchy and Niels Henrik Abel, and especially the latter, who was the first to boldly use complex numbers with a success that is well known.
The common terms used in the theory are chiefly due to the founders. Argand called the direction factor, and the modulus; Cauchy (1828) called the reduced form (l'expression réduite); Gauss used i for , introduced the term complex number for , and called the norm.
The expression direction coefficient, often used for , is due to Hankel (1867), and absolute value, for modulus, is due to Weierstrass.
Following Cauchy and Gauss have come a number of contributors of high rank, of whom the following may be especially mentioned: Kummer (1844), Leopold Kronecker (1845), Scheffler (1845, 1851, 1880), Bellavitis (1835, 1852), Peacock (1845), and De Morgan (1849). Möbius must also be mentioned for his numerous memoirs on the geometric applications of complex numbers, and Dirichlet for the expansion of the theory to include primes, congruences, reciprocity, etc., as in the case of real numbers.
A complex ring or field is a set of complex numbers which is closed under addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Gauss studied complex numbers of the form , where a and b are integral, or rational (and i is one of the two roots of ). His student, Ferdinand Eisenstein, studied the type , where is a complex root of . Other such classes (called cyclotomic fields) of complex numbers are derived from the roots of unity for higher values of . This generalization is largely due to Kummer, who also invented ideal numbers, which were expressed as geometrical entities by Felix Klein in 1893. The general theory of fields was created by Évariste Galois, who studied the fields generated by the roots of any polynomial equation
The late writers (from 1884) on the general theory include Weierstrass, Schwarz, Richard Dedekind, Otto Hölder, Berloty, Henri Poincaré, Eduard Study, and Alexander MacFarlane.
The formally correct definition using pairs of real numbers was given in the 19th century.
Complex numbers | Elementary mathematics
عدد عقدي | Комплексно число | জটিল সংখ্যা | Nombre complex | Komplexní číslo | Komplekse tal | Komplexe Zahl | Μιγαδικός αριθμός | Kompleksarv | Número complejo | Kompleksa Nombro | اعداد مختلط | Nombre complexe | 복소수 | Tvinntölur | Numero complesso | מספר מרוכב | Komplex számok | Kompleksiniai skaičiai | 複素数 | Komplekst tall | Complex getal | Liczby zespolone | Número complexo | Număr complex | Комплексное число | Nummuru complessu | complex number | Kompleksno število | Комплексан број | Kompleksiluku | Komplexa tal | கலப்பெண் | จำนวนเชิงซ้อน | Karmaşık sayılar | 複數 (數學) | 複數
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