An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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Math.: The Hermitian conjugate of an m by n matrix A is the n by m matrix A^* obtained from A by taking the → transpose and then taking the complex conjugate of each entry. Also called adjoint matrix, conjugate transpose. → Hermitian operator.

Hermitian, named in honor of the Fr. mathematician Charles Hermite (1822-1901), who made important contributions to number theory, quadratic forms, invariant theory, orthogonal polynomials, elliptic functions, and algebra. One of his students was Henri Poincaré; → conjugate.