--- title: Study Finds Imaginary Numbers May Not Be Essential to... description: Physicists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and the German Aerospace Center have shown that quantum mechanics can be fully formulated using only real... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/study-finds-imaginary-numbers-may-not-be-essential-to-quantum-mechanics-pxnrou5wy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Study Finds Imaginary Numbers May Not Be Essential to Quantum Mechanics | daily.dev og:description: Physicists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and the German Aerospace Center have shown that quantum mechanics can be fully formulated using only real... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/study-finds-imaginary-numbers-may-not-be-essential-to-quantum-mechanics-pxnrou5wy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/PxnRou5WY.png og:image:alt: Study Finds Imaginary Numbers May Not Be Essential to Quantum Mechanics og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Study Finds Imaginary Numbers May Not Be Essential to Quantum Mechanics **[The Quantum Insider](https://daily.dev/sources/thequantuminsider)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Physicists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and the German Aerospace Center have shown that quantum mechanics can be fully formulated using only real numbers, without requiring imaginary (complex) numbers. The team, led by Prof. Dagmar Bruß, identified that a postulate used in a landmark 2021 study (which concluded complex numbers are indispensable) was overly restrictive. By replacing it with a physically motivated alternative for system composition, they derived a class of theories that use only real numbers yet produce predictions experimentally indistinguishable from standard quantum mechanics. The findings were published in Physical Review Letters and highlighted by the American Physical Society. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Actually, you can't test if quantum uses complex numbers](https://daily.dev/posts/actually-you-can-t-test-if-quantum-uses-complex-numbers-tbnytn0mr) · Algorithmic Assertions · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Mathematicians disagree on the essential structure of the complex numbers](https://daily.dev/posts/mathematicians-disagree-on-the-essential-structure-of-the-complex-numbers-tntl8xyu6) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#quantum-computing](https://daily.dev/tags/quantum-computing) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/study-finds-imaginary-numbers-may-not-be-essential-to-quantum-mechanics-pxnrou5wy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Study Finds Imaginary Numbers May Not Be Essential to Quantum Mechanics","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/study-finds-imaginary-numbers-may-not-be-essential-to-quantum-mechanics-pxnrou5wy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/study-finds-imaginary-numbers-may-not-be-essential-to-quantum-mechanics-pxnrou5wy"},"datePublished":"2026-07-13T15:25:52.929Z","dateModified":"2026-07-13T15:26:09.962Z","description":"Physicists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and the German Aerospace Center have shown that quantum mechanics can be fully formulated using only real...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/35015bbc322931efffe8fc50e04f589f?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/35015bbc322931efffe8fc50e04f589f?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Quantum Insider","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Quantum Insider","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/7b14a6b34c1b464c9e8a88d9a0dac951","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/thequantuminsider"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/study-finds-imaginary-numbers-may-not-be-essential-to-quantum-mechanics-pxnrou5wy","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"quantum-computing","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Quantum Insider","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/thequantuminsider"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Study Finds Imaginary Numbers May Not Be Essential to Quantum Mechanics"}]} ```