Imaginary time is a concept derived from quantum mechanics and is essential in connecting quantum mechanics with statistical mechanics.
Imaginary time can be difficult to visualize. If we imagine "regular time" as a horizontal line running between "past" in one direction and "future" in the other, then imaginary time would run perpendicular to this line as the imaginary numbers run perpendicular to the real numbers in the complex plane. Imaginary time is not imaginary in the sense that it is unreal or made-up — it simply runs in a direction different from the type of time we experience. In essence, imaginary time is a way of looking at the time dimension as if it were a dimension of space: you can move forward and backward along imaginary time, just like you can move right and left in space.
Read more about Imaginary Time: In Quantum Mechanics, In Cosmology
Famous quotes containing the words imaginary and/or time:
“When an old Woman begins to doat [sic], and grow chargeable to a Parish, she is generally turned into a Witch, and fills the whole Country with extravagant Fancies, imaginary Distempers, and terrifying Dreams. In the mean time, the poor Wretch that is the innocent Occasion of so many Evils begins to be frighted at her self, and sometimes confesses secret Commerces and Familiarities that her Imagination forms in a delirious old Age.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)