Why Can't I store references in a `std::map` in C++?

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I understand that references are not pointers, but an alias to an object. However, I still don't understand what exactly this means to me as a programmer, i.e. what are references under the hood?

I think the best way to understand this would be to understand why it is I can't store a reference in a map.

I know I need to stop thinking of references as syntactic suger over pointers, just not sure how to :/

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