The only times anyone would use the asterisk as multiplication symbol are
- they are doing some fancy math and it’s not the same kind of number multiplication we’re familiar with
- they are on a computer, the keyboard does not have a (×) key, and they don’t know how to typeset it (
\times
in LaTex), so they just use the asterisk instead
The US government falls in the second category.
It’s a math trick. Not a physical theory.