Power function: 0^a not fully implemented

We assume a to be positive:

(%i1) assume(a>0)$

This is correct:

(%i2) 0^a;
(%o2) 0

The exponent is negative. The result is not correct:

(%i3) 0^-a;
(%o3) 0

The realpart of the exponent is positive. Therefore we should give zero as a result:

(%i4) 0^(a+%i*y);
0 to a complex quantity has been generated.
-- an error. To debug this try: debugmode(true);

(%i5) 0^(2+%i*10);
0 to a complex quantity has been generated.
-- an error. To debug this try: debugmode(true);

Maxima simplifies all expressions which does not contain the symbol %i to zero. Furthermore, Maxima does not look at the sign of the realpart.

Dieter Kaiser