Quantum Physics: imaginary numbers required (General)

by David Turell , Thursday, December 23, 2021, 14:52 (856 days ago) @ David Turell

Latest proof:

https://www.livescience.com/imaginary-numbers-needed-to-describe-reality

Imaginary numbers are necessary to accurately describe reality, two new studies have suggested.

Imaginary numbers are what you get when you take the square root of a negative number, and they have long been used in the most important equations of quantum mechanics, the branch of physics that describes the world of the very small. When you add imaginary numbers and real numbers, the two form complex numbers, which enable physicists to write out quantum equations in simple terms. But whether quantum theory needs these mathematical chimeras or just uses them as convenient shortcuts has long been controversial.

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But in the absence of hard experimental evidence to rule upon the predictions of these "all real" equations, a question has lingered: Are imaginary numbers an optional simplification, or does trying to work without them rob quantum theory of its ability to describe reality?

Now, two studies, published Dec. 15 in the journals Nature and Physical Review Letters, have proved Schrödinger wrong. By a relatively simple experiment, they show that if quantum mechanics is correct, imaginary numbers are a necessary part of the mathematics of our universe.

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The researchers stressed, however, that their experiment only rules out theories that forgo imaginary numbers if the reigning conventions of quantum mechanics are correct. Most scientists are very confident that this is the case, but this is an important caveat nonetheless.

Comment: If we use imaginary numbers that mathematicians make up to describe the quantum basis of reality, then any form of materialism is dead.