section_path: Main branches/Complex analysis
section_name: Complex analysis
paragraph_text: Complex analysis
  
  Complex analysis (traditionally known as the "theory of functions of a complex variable") is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is useful in many branches of mathematics, including algebraic geometry, number theory, applied mathematics; as well as in physics, including hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and particularly, quantum field theory.
  
  Complex analysis is particularly concerned with the analytic functions of complex variables (or, more generally, meromorphic functions). Because the separate real and imaginary parts of any analytic function must satisfy Laplace's equation, complex analysis is widely applicable to two-dimensional problems in physics.