[SciPy-user] complex vector scalar product: wrong implementation

[David Flory]

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A comment from a physicist on the issue of scalar products over the complex
field.

It is true that the most common inner product over the complex field is the
traditional real one where (a,b)=(b,a)* and (a,a) is real.  The linear
transformations that preserve this inner product are unitary and we have
quantum mechanics as the best example. 

However, there *are* applications for the "symmetric" inner product over the
complex field where (a,b)=(b,a).  The transformations that preserve this are
"complex orthogonal" and there are applications from Minkowski space and
representations of the Lorentz group.  

My point is that the categorical statement that only the traditional real
inner product is legitimate is simply not true.  

Cheers, 
David Flory
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