Gaussian integer

noun

Gaussian integer

noun
1

Algebra, Mathematics, Sciences Any complex number of the form a + bi, where a and b are integers.

  • We could say that a Gaussian integer is larger than another if its norm is larger, that is, if its distance from the origin is larger. That's all right, although it has the peculiarity that 5 is larger than -7 as an integer, but smaller than -7 as a Gaussian integer! In a way, this notion of larger makes more sense: shouldn't -7 be considered larger than 5?1997, Bernard L. Johnston, Fred Richman, Numbers and Symmetry: An Introduction to Algebra, CRC Press, page 44:
  • 2000, André Weilert, Asymptotically fast GCD Computation in ℤ[i], Wieb Bosma (editor), Algorithmic Number Theory: 4th International Symposium, ANTS-IV, Proceedings, Springer, LNCS 1838, page 595, We present an asymptotically fast algorithm for the computation of the greatest common divisor (GCD) of two Gaussian integers.
1 more example
  • 2008, Timothy Gowers, June Barrow-Green, Imre Leader (editors), The Princeton Companion to Mathematics, Princeton University Press, page 319, For example, in the ring of Gaussian integers, R_-1, we have the factorizations 2=(1+i)(1-i), 5=(1+2i)(1-2i), 13=(2+3i)(2-3i), 17=(1+4i)(1-4i), 29=(2+5i)(2-5i), ⋮ where all the Gaussian integer factors in brackets above are irreducible elements of the ring of Gaussian integers.
Related terms
Eisenstein integer, Blum integer
Hypernyms
complex number, algebraic integer, quadratic integer, Gaussian rational number, Gaussian rational
Hyponyms
Gaussian prime, integer

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