A functional calculus and the complex conjugate of a matrix

Abstract

Based on Stokes' theorem we derive a non-holomorphic functional calculus for matrices, assuming sufficient smoothness near eigenvalues, corresponding to the size of related Jordan blocks. It is then applied to the complex conjugation function $\tau: z \mapsto \overline z$. The resulting matrix agrees with the hermitian transpose if and only if the matrix is normal. Two other, as such elementary, approaches to define the complex conjugate of a matrix yield the same result.