Numerical Analysis: Does anyone know what "Re" or "Re()" means?

Question

I'm taking Numerical Analysis right now, and my current section is Stiff Differential Equations.

I'm proving that the Implicit Trapezoidal method is A-stable.

In the end of the proof, this is what it says:

|Q(hk)| < 1 when Re(hk) < 0.

Notice that "hk" is just a product of two constants.

SO, "Re" is most likely a function.

Does anyone know what "Re" or "Re()" is? Please help.

Answer 1

Re() would normaly mean the Real part of a Complex number.

But I don't know your context and so this is only an educated guess.

Hoping to be right ;-)

Answer 2

Only a guess but could it be REAL part of (hk)?