[GiNaC-list] conjugates of power objects

[Alexei Sheplyakov]

Hello,

On Thu, May 06, 2010 at 05:16:01AM +0200, Burcin Erocal wrote:

> I attached a patch with my attempts to solve this problem. It is based
> on the latest version of pynac. I hope it applies cleanly to GiNaC as
> well.
 
> Attached patch adds a rule to power::eval() to transform ^(-c1, c2) to
> *(^(-1, c2), (c1, c2)) when c1 and c2 are both rational. I got this
> idea from maxima.

No objections here.

> I also restrict the automatic conjugation unless the basis is real and
> the exponent is a rational, returning *this in this case.

Now conjugate() is unable to handle pow(complex-valued polynomial, integer).
I think this makes conjugate() practically useless. So, I'm afraid this change
is not acceptable.

> diff --git a/ginac/power.cpp b/ginac/power.cpp
> --- a/ginac/power.cpp
> +++ b/ginac/power.cpp
> @@ -567,6 +567,14 @@
>  			}
>  
>  			if (exponent_is_rational) {
> +				// ^(-c1, c2) -> ((-1)^c2)*(c1^c2)
> +				// for example sqrt(-2) -> I*sqrt(2)
> +				if (num_basis->is_negative() &&
> +						!num_basis->is_equal(*_num_1_p))
> +					return mul(power(_ex_1, *num_exponent),
> +						power((*num_basis)*(*_num_1_p),
> +							*num_exponent));
> +

A few minor corrections:

1) pow(_ex_1, *num_exponent)*pow((*num_basis)*(*num_1_p), *num_exponent)
   
   would be easier to read

2) If you insist on constructing the mul object manually, do

   return new mul(foo, bar)->setflags(status_flags::dynallocated);


Best regards,
	Alexei