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Imaginary point
In geometry, in the context of a real geometric space extended to (or embedded in) a complex projective space, an imaginary point is a point not contained in the embedded space.
Definition
In terms of homogeneous coordinates, a point of the complex projective plane with coordinates (a,b,c) in the complex projective space for which there exists no complex number z such that za, zb, and zc are all real.
This definition generalizes to complex projective spaces. The point with coordinates
(a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_n)
is imaginary if there exists no complex number z such that
(za_1,za_2,\ldots,za_n)
are all real coordinates.[1]
Properties
Every imaginary point belongs to exactly one real line, the line through the point and its complex conjugate.[1]
See also
Real point
References
Pottmann, Helmut; Wallner, Johannes (2009), Computational Line Geometry, Mathematics and visualization, Springer, pp. 54–55, ISBN 9783642040184.
Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics
Graduate Studies in Mathematics
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