Real numbers suck!

The central theme of complex analysis is that the algebra

and analysis of complex analysis are intertwined, as opposed to the algebra and
analysis of real numbers.
The geometry of the complex numbers gives us a good way to visualize
how common real functions extend into the complex plane. The key equation
allowing us to think of complex numbers geometrically in an elegant way is
rei = r (cos + i sin )

(1)

where r represents the distance of the complex number from the origin and is
the angle the number makes with 0. This polar form is much easier to multiply
and exponentiate compared to the ordinary cartesian form z = a + ib.

Complex Differentiability

It turns out that complex differentiability is a much stronger condition on a

function than in real analysis. Rather than having the same limiting value in
two directions like in real analysis, in complex analysis there are an uncountable
number of paths to approach a limit. However, we conjectured that only the
directions 1 and i were sufficient to check complex differentiability because
all paths can be expressed as a combination of 1 and i. In fact, too good
to be true facts like this are frequently true in complex analysis, and we may
manipulate the limit
f (z0 + z) f (z0 )
(2)
lim
z0
z
into the Cauchy-Riemann Equations
x u = y v
y u = x v
where u(x, y) and v(x, y) are the real and imaginary parts of the function f (z) =
f (x + iy) respectively. This gives us a fast way to check if a functions is complex
differentiable in some region in C. Yes, all the functions you expect to be
differentiable are complex differentiable.

1.1

Geometry of Derivatives

We took a small detour into the geometry of complex derivatives. Complex

derivatives are representable as matrices that look like scaled rotations. This
gives us another nice way to think about complex derivatives. Derivatives are
really just scaled rotations; functions that cant be rotated and scaled nicely
cannot are not differentiable.

Integration

We started integration by trying to calculate

Z i
zdz

(3)

If we try and integrate this pretending z is real we get 1. Can we really

do this? Our class tried evaluating the integral along a straight line path by
parameterizing the integral. Evaluated this way, we also get 1. In fact, when
we tried to integrate along a circular path, the integral also evaluated to 1!.
This led to a
Super BOLD Claim: Integrating f is path independent.
Substantially
Less Bold Claim: No matter what path we take from z1
Rz
to z2 , z12 f is well defined.
We also had some other conditions that we thought might need to be true
for the above claims to hold. f needs to be continuous and differentiable on
the path of integration. However, we took a detour and showed that a complex
function f has a primitive (ie: an antiderivative) if and only if f is differentiable.
This actually allows us to see that integrating on a closed path will give us 0 if
a function has a primitive, and also shows that we can integrate the real way.
In order to make headway into the question of path independent integrals,
we studied homotopy. Max told us a story about his Russian complex analysis
professor (who was a Fields medalist) that had a tendency to prove things in
class by prefacing the proof with Proof is trivial, by homotopy equivalence.
But I will show you....
Two paths 1 , 2 are homotopic equivalent in a region if one of the paths
can be continuously deformed into the other entirely within .
Amazingly, we used the concept of homotopy to show that an integral is
indeed path independent, given that the paths are homotopically equivalent.
How breathtaking!
We also used homotopy to show a result that lets us evaluate real integrals
easily using complex analysis:
Z
f (z)
2if (zo ) =
dz
(4)
z
z0
C
where C is a contour (closed path) enclosing 0.

Beautiful Results

A generalization of the last integral in the last section is

Z
(n 1)!
f (z)
f (n1) (zo ) =
n dz
2i
(z
z0 )
C
which we derived by using induction with differentiation under the integral.
From this result, we have shown that if a function f is complex differentiable
2

in a region , then it is also infinitely differentiable in a region !! A direct

corollary of this formula also shows that if f is complex differentiable then you
can always write a Taylor series expansion for f . In other words, f is said to be
analytic.
Another result in complex analysis that is not true in real analysis is the
fact that if f is complex differentiable and bounded, then it is constant. For
example, f = sin is bounded by 1 in the reals, but sin is not constant. The
Fundamental Theorem of Algebra which states that every polynomial of
degree n has n roots can be shown in 3 lines with this result by considering
1/polynomial and deriving a contradiction. Complex numbers are cool!