Complex line

Last updated

In mathematics, a complex line is a one-dimensional affine subspace of a vector space over the complex numbers. [1] [2] A common point of confusion is that while a complex line has dimension one over C (hence the term "line"), it has dimension two over the real numbers R, and is topologically equivalent to a real plane, not a real line. [3]

The "complex plane" commonly refers to the graphical representation of the complex line on the real plane, and is thus generally synonymous with the complex line, and not a two-dimensional space over the complex numbers.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dimension</span> Property of a mathematical space

In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it – for example, the point at 5 on a number line. A surface, such as the boundary of a cylinder or sphere, has a dimension of two (2D) because two coordinates are needed to specify a point on it – for example, both a latitude and longitude are required to locate a point on the surface of a sphere. A two-dimensional Euclidean space is a two-dimensional space on the plane. The inside of a cube, a cylinder or a sphere is three-dimensional (3D) because three coordinates are needed to locate a point within these spaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euclidean space</span> Fundamental space of geometry

Euclidean space is the fundamental space of geometry, intended to represent physical space. Originally, that is, in Euclid's Elements, it was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, but in modern mathematics there are Euclidean spaces of any positive integer dimension n, which are called Euclidean n-spaces when one wants to specify their dimension. For n equal to one or two, they are commonly called respectively Euclidean lines and Euclidean planes. The qualifier "Euclidean" is used to distinguish Euclidean spaces from other spaces that were later considered in physics and modern mathematics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Projective plane</span> Geometric concept of a 2D space with a "point at infinity" adjoined

In mathematics, a projective plane is a geometric structure that extends the concept of a plane. In the ordinary Euclidean plane, two lines typically intersect in a single point, but there are some pairs of lines that do not intersect. A projective plane can be thought of as an ordinary plane equipped with additional "points at infinity" where parallel lines intersect. Thus any two distinct lines in a projective plane intersect at exactly one point.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vector space</span> Algebraic structure in linear algebra

In mathematics and physics, a vector space is a set whose elements, often called vectors, may be added together and multiplied ("scaled") by numbers called scalars. Scalars are often real numbers, but can be complex numbers or, more generally, elements of any field. The operations of vector addition and scalar multiplication must satisfy certain requirements, called vector axioms. The terms real vector space and complex vector space are often used to specify the nature of the scalars: real coordinate space or complex coordinate space.

In algebra, the dual numbers are a hypercomplex number system first introduced in the 19th century. They are expressions of the form a + , where a and b are real numbers, and ε is a symbol taken to satisfy with .

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euclidean distance</span> Length of a line segment

In mathematics, the Euclidean distance between two points in Euclidean space is the length of a line segment between the two points. It can be calculated from the Cartesian coordinates of the points using the Pythagorean theorem, therefore occasionally being called the Pythagorean distance. These names come from the ancient Greek mathematicians Euclid and Pythagoras, although Euclid did not represent distances as numbers, and the connection from the Pythagorean theorem to distance calculation was not made until the 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curve</span> Mathematical idealization of the trace left by a moving point

In mathematics, a curve is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Projective space</span> Completion of the usual space with "points at infinity"

In mathematics, the concept of a projective space originated from the visual effect of perspective, where parallel lines seem to meet at infinity. A projective space may thus be viewed as the extension of a Euclidean space, or, more generally, an affine space with points at infinity, in such a way that there is one point at infinity of each direction of parallel lines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affine geometry</span> Euclidean geometry without distance and angles

In mathematics, affine geometry is what remains of Euclidean geometry when ignoring the metric notions of distance and angle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finite geometry</span> Geometric system with a finite number of points

A finite geometry is any geometric system that has only a finite number of points. The familiar Euclidean geometry is not finite, because a Euclidean line contains infinitely many points. A geometry based on the graphics displayed on a computer screen, where the pixels are considered to be the points, would be a finite geometry. While there are many systems that could be called finite geometries, attention is mostly paid to the finite projective and affine spaces because of their regularity and simplicity. Other significant types of finite geometry are finite Möbius or inversive planes and Laguerre planes, which are examples of a general type called Benz planes, and their higher-dimensional analogs such as higher finite inversive geometries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conformal group</span>

In mathematics, the conformal group of an inner product space is the group of transformations from the space to itself that preserve angles. More formally, it is the group of transformations that preserve the conformal geometry of the space.

In mathematics, a duality translates concepts, theorems or mathematical structures into other concepts, theorems or structures, in a one-to-one fashion, often by means of an involution operation: if the dual of A is B, then the dual of B is A. Such involutions sometimes have fixed points, so that the dual of A is A itself. For example, Desargues' theorem is self-dual in this sense under the standard duality in projective geometry.

In projective geometry, a collineation is a one-to-one and onto map from one projective space to another, or from a projective space to itself, such that the images of collinear points are themselves collinear. A collineation is thus an isomorphism between projective spaces, or an automorphism from a projective space to itself. Some authors restrict the definition of collineation to the case where it is an automorphism. The set of all collineations of a space to itself form a group, called the collineation group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space (mathematics)</span> Mathematical set with some added structure

In mathematics, a space is a set with some added structure. While modern mathematics uses many types of spaces, such as Euclidean spaces, linear spaces, topological spaces, Hilbert spaces, or probability spaces, it does not define the notion of "space" itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ptolemy's inequality</span>

In Euclidean geometry, Ptolemy's inequality relates the six distances determined by four points in the plane or in a higher-dimensional space. It states that, for any four points A, B, C, and D, the following inequality holds:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algebraic combinatorics</span> Area of combinatorics

Algebraic combinatorics is an area of mathematics that employs methods of abstract algebra, notably group theory and representation theory, in various combinatorial contexts and, conversely, applies combinatorial techniques to problems in algebra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euclidean plane</span> Geometric model of the planar projection of the physical universe

In mathematics, a Euclidean plane is a Euclidean space of dimension two, denoted E2. It is a geometric space in which two real numbers are required to determine the position of each point. It is an affine space, which includes in particular the concept of parallel lines. It has also metrical properties induced by a distance, which allows to define circles, and angle measurement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Infinity</span> Mathematical concept

Infinity is that which is boundless, endless, or larger than any natural number. It is often denoted by the infinity symbol .

In geometry, a Sylvester–Gallai configuration consists of a finite subset of the points of a projective space with the property that the line through any two of the points in the subset also passes through at least one other point of the subset.

In the mathematical theory of matroids, a matroid representation is a family of vectors whose linear independence relation is the same as that of a given matroid. Matroid representations are analogous to group representations; both types of representation provide abstract algebraic structures with concrete descriptions in terms of linear algebra.

References

  1. Brass, Peter; Moser, William; Pach, János (2005), Research Problems in Discrete Geometry, Springer, New York, p. 305, ISBN   9780387299297, MR   2163782 .
  2. Shabat, Boris Vladimirovich (1992), Introduction to Complex Analysis: Functions of Several Variables, Translations of mathematical monographs, vol. 110, American Mathematical Society, p. 3, ISBN   9780821819753
  3. Miller, Ezra; Reiner, Victor; Sturmfels, Bernd (2007), Geometric Combinatorics: Lectures from the Graduate Summer School held in Park City, UT, 2004, IAS/Park City Mathematics Series, vol. 13, Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, p. 9, ISBN   978-0-8218-3736-8, MR   2383123 .