All articles tagged with #complex numbers
Physicists built a working version of quantum mechanics using only real numbers, recreating all predictions of the standard theory by replacing the usual complex-number tensor product with a real-number rule and a bookkeeping flag system. The approach shows complex numbers aren’t fundamental to quantum mechanics, though the work currently covers finite systems and does not alter experimental predictions.
A team of mathematicians has revived interest in enumerative geometry by applying a decades-old theory called motivic homotopy theory to count solutions across various number systems, providing new insights and raising intriguing questions about the fundamental nature of numbers and geometric objects.
Mathematicians have used supercomputers to calculate the value of the "ninth Dedekind number" or D(9), a complex number that was previously thought to be impossible to calculate. The number represents the number of possible configurations of a certain kind of true-false logical operation in different spatial dimensions. Two separate research groups produced the exact same number for D(9), confirming its accuracy. Dedekind numbers get exponentially larger for each new dimension, making them increasingly difficult to calculate. The newly identified value for D(9) is 286386577668298411128469151667598498812366.