Re: More strange behavior by ComplexExpand
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg60608] Re: [mg60603] More strange behavior by ComplexExpand
- From: Bob Hanlon <hanlonr at cox.net>
- Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 02:08:04 -0400 (EDT)
- Reply-to: hanlonr at cox.net
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Although the expanded form is not the simplest form, it does not appear to
be wrong. The different treatment of t occurs because t only appears as t^2
and its Sign is immaterial. Whereas the undetermined Sign of a results in the
(a^2)^(1/8) form and the unsimplified expression.
expr=(a/Pi)^(1/4) Exp[-(a t^2)/2];
ComplexExpand[expr]
((a^2)^(1/8)*Sqrt[E^(a*t^2)]*Cos[Arg[a]/4])/(E^(a*t^2)*Pi^(1/4)) +
(I*(a^2)^(1/8)*Sqrt[E^(a*t^2)]*Sin[Arg[a]/4])/(E^(a*t^2)*Pi^(1/4))
FullSimplify[%,Element[{a,t}, Reals]]
a^(1/4)/(E^((a*t^2)/2)*Pi^(1/4))
%==expr
True
Bob Hanlon
>
> From: Raul Martinez <raulm231 at comcast.net>
To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
> Date: 2005/09/21 Wed AM 03:20:48 EDT
> Subject: [mg60608] [mg60603] More strange behavior by ComplexExpand
>
> To Mathgroup,
>
> I use Mathematica 5.2 with Mac OS X (Tiger).
>
> Add the following to a recent thread on the sometimes strange
> behavior of ComplexExpand.
>
> I used ComplexExpand with an argument in which all the variables in
> the argument of the function are real. Since ComplexExpand is
> supposed to assume that all variables are real by default, one would
> expect ComplexExpand to return the expression without change, but it
> doesn't. Instead, here is what it does:
>
> In[1]:=
>
> ComplexExpand[ (a / Pi)^(1/4) Exp[ (-(a t^2)/2 ] ]
>
> Out[2]:=
>
> (Exp[-a t^2] Sqrt[Exp[a t^2]] (a^2)^(1/8) Cos[Arg[a] / 4]) / Pi^
> (1/4) + i (Exp[-a t^2] Sqrt[Exp[a t^2]] (a^2)^(1/8) Sin[Arg[a] /
> 4]) / Pi^(1/4).
>
> I have inserted parentheses in a few places to improve the legibility
> of the expressions.
>
> ComplexExpand treats the variable "a" as complex, but "t" as real.
> This is puzzling to say the least. Moreover, it renders a^(1/4) as
> (a^2)^(1/8), which seems bizarre.
>
> My interest is not in obtaining the correct result, which is easy to
> do. Rather, I bring this up as yet another example of the
> unreliability of ComplexExpand. In case anyone is wondering why I
> would use ComplexExpand on an expression I know to be real, the
> reason is that the expression in question is a factor in a larger
> expression that contains complex variables. Applied to the larger
> expression, ComplexExpand returned an obviously incorrect expansion
> that I traced to the treatment of the example shown above.
>
> I welcome comments and suggestions.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Raul Martinez
>
>
>
>
>
>
>