[GiNaC-devel] indexes of clifford objects

[Alexei Sheplyakov]

Hello,

On Sun, Jun 05, 2011 at 05:55:11AM +0100, Vladimir V. Kisil wrote:
>     RK> From a physicists point of view, I thought that it doesn't make
>     RK> sense to construct a clifford object with an idx instead of a
>     RK> varidx.
> 
> 	There are several mathematical frameworks leading to Clifford
>   algebras. Most elementary one is a free algebra with n generators
>   factorised by an ideal of the quadratic (anticommuting)
>   relations. From that perspective generators of the Clifford algebra
>   are not required to be even indexed objects at all. You may call them
>   simply a, b, c,... as long as you able to make manipulations like ab=-ba,
>   a^2=-1, etc.
> 
>     RK> If someone with more insight could shed a light on this I could
>     RK> finish my recent quest to make GiNaC pass its test suite even
>     RK> when compiled with -DDO_GINAC_ASSERT. That would be great.

> 
> 	However, I do not see a practical obstacle to change the GiNaC code
>   to permit varidx only as indices in the clifford class.

I don't think this artificial restrictions is a good idea. Why don't we
remove that bogus assertion instead?

Best regards,
	Alexei