On Analytic Continuations of complex-valued functions

  • Context: Graduate 
  • Thread starter Thread starter logicalmoron
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Functions
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
1 reply · 2K views
logicalmoron
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Hey Folks, first post here,

I'm having significant difficulty understanding how to create an analytic continuation of a function. The topic seems straightforward (please stop me if I am wrong): if you have two functions whose laurent expansions have a radius of convergence > 0, then the functions must be equal on the domain where those radii of convergence overlap (this is likely a gross oversimplification as the topic was just introduced yesterday.)

My question is as to how you actually construct an analytic continuation of a function — say the log(z) function, with a branch cut taken from (-∞,0), to find an analytic continuation of the function on that branch cut minus the pole at z = 0.

Again this is still probably a gross oversimplification so I would really appreciate any advice/suggestions you guys have.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Log is analytic at zero when it is represented by a Taylor series about -1.