Symbolic complex conjugation
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg26125] Symbolic complex conjugation
- From: "A. E. Siegman" <siegman at stanford.edu>
- Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 01:56:10 -0500 (EST)
- Organization: Stanford University
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Suppose one wishes to do symbolic complex conjugation on a complicated
symbolic expression in which all symbols are assumed purely real -- that
is, given a symbolic expression of arbitrary complexity with multiple
instances of I occuring inside it, change every instance of I to -I, and
nothing more.
The best approach I'm aware of seems to be the method described in the
4.0 Help files, namely
new_expr = old_expr /. Complex[0, n_] -> -Complex[0, n]
Is there a better approach than this?
And, for educational purposes, can someone explain how and why this
approach works? In particular, why isn't the rule something like
Complex[a_, b_] -> Complex[a, -b]
Is the "0" significant? Is the "n" supposed to be integer?