Difference between revisions of "Complex conjugate"

Revision as of 22:20, 1 January 2008

The complex conjugate of a complex number $z = a + bi$ is the complex number $\overline{z} = a - bi$ .

Geometrically, if $z$ is a point in the complex plane, $\overline z$ is the reflection of $z$ across the real axis.

Conjugation is its own functional inverse and commutes with the usual operations on complex numbers:

$\overline{(\overline z)} = z$ .
$\overline{(w \cdot z)} = \overline{w} \cdot \overline{z}$ . ( $\overline{(\frac{w}{z})}$ is the same as $\overline{(w \cdot \frac{1}{z})}$ )
$\overline{(w + z)} = \overline{w} + \overline{z}$ . ( $\overline{(w - z)}$ is the same as $\overline{(w + (-z))}$ )

It also interacts in simple ways with other operations on $\mathbb{C}$ :

$|\overline{z}| = |z|$ .
$\overline{z}\cdot z = |z|^2$ .
If $z = r\cdot e^{it}$ for $r, t \in \mathbb{R}$ , $\overline z = r\cdot e^{-it}$ . That is, $\overline z$ is the complex number of same absolute value but opposite argument of $z$ .
$z + \overline z = 2 \mathrm{Re}(z)$ where $\mathrm{Re}(z)$ is the real part of $z$ .
$z - \overline{z} = 2i \mathrm{Im}(z)$ where $\mathrm{Im}(z)$ is the imaginary part of $z$ .

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 * <math>\overline{(\overline z)} = z</math>.
 * <math>\overline{(w \cdot z)} = \overline{w} \cdot \overline{z}</math>. (<math>\overline{(\frac{w}{z})}</math> is the same as <math>\overline{(w \cdot \frac{1}{z})}</math>)
-* <math>\overline{(w + z)} = \overline{w} + \overline{z}</math>. (<math>\overline{(w + z)}</math> is the same as <math>\overline{(w + (-z))}</math>)
+* <math>\overline{(w + z)} = \overline{w} + \overline{z}</math>. (<math>\overline{(w - z)}</math> is the same as <math>\overline{(w + (-z))}</math>)
 It also interacts in simple ways with other operations on <math>\mathbb{C}</math>:
 * <math>|\overline{z}| = |z|</math>.