The Requirement of (at least) Complex Structure for Quantum Mechanics

arXiv:2609.23041 · quant-ph, physics.hist-ph · Submitted 2026-09-19 · Read on arXiv

quant-ph, physics.hist-ph

Submitted: 2026-09-19

Updated: 2026-09-29

Terminology

• Hilbert Space — 27× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Entanglement — 3× in this paper · explained in 4 episodes
• Trace — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes

Sources

• Quantum mechanics on a real Hilbert space
• Quantum theory does not need complex numbers
• Time evolution of quantum gates and the necessity of complex numbers

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