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Mathematics
Linear and Abstract Algebra
Inner Product vs. Dot Product Confusion in Quantum Physics?
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[QUOTE="lawlieto, post: 5827927, member: 625266"] I started learning quantum, and I got a bit confused about inner and dot products. I've attached 2 screenshots; 1 from Wikipedia and 1 from an MIT pdf I found online. Wikipedia says that a.Dot(b) when they're complex would be the sum of a[SUB]i[/SUB]b[SUB]i[/SUB] where b is the complex conjugate. The PDF from MIT ([URL]https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-05-quantum-physics-ii-fall-2013/lecture-notes/MIT8_05F13_Chap_04.pdf[/URL]) page 2 says that the inner product is taken <a|b>, then when doing a1b1+a2b3+... the complex conjugate of a is taken. I thought this would be the same thing as taking the dot product with complex numbers (like what I mentioned above in the 2nd paragraph). But in the dot product, the complex conjugate of b is taken, whereas here the complex conjugate of a is taken. Could someone demystify this for me please? Thanks [/QUOTE]
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Linear and Abstract Algebra
Inner Product vs. Dot Product Confusion in Quantum Physics?
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