On the continuability of multivalued analytic functions to an analytic subset (Q5944772)

Let \(M\) be an analytic manifold and let \(\Sigma\) be an analytic subset of \(M\). Let \(b\in M\) and let \(f_b\) be a germ of an analytic function at \(b\) that can be continued analytically along any curve \(\gamma: [0,1]\to M\), \(\gamma(0) = b\), such that \(\gamma\) can intersect the set \(\Sigma\) at the initial instant only. What can be said about the continuability of the germ \(f_b\) along the curves that belong to \(\Sigma\) starting from some instant? This is just the subject of this paper. The author studies the classical case in which it is additionally assumed that the continuations of the germ \(f_b\) define a single-valued analytic function on the set \(M \setminus\Sigma\). In this case, the only obstruction to the continuability of the germ \(f_b\) is formed by the irreducible components of the set \(\Sigma\) that are of codimension one in \(M\) and whose closures do not contain the given point \(b\). The germ \(f_b\) can be continued to the complement of the union of these components, and it generally cannot be continued further. However, as is shown by a simple example, this result cannot be extended immediately to the case of multivalued functions. This example suggests the following theorem on the analytic continuation of a function along an analytic set: Let \(M\) be a complex analytic manifold, let \(\Sigma\) be an analytic subset of \(M\), and let \(f_b\) be a germ of an analytic function at a point \(b\in M\). Assume that the germ \(f_a\) can be continued analytically along any curve \(\gamma: [0,1]\to M\), \(\gamma(0) = b\), disjoint with \(\Sigma\) for \(t > 0\). Suppose that the germ \(f_b\) can be continued analytically along some curve \(\gamma_1: [0,1]\to M\), \(\gamma_1(0)=b\), whose right end \(a\), \(a=\gamma_1(1)\), belongs to the set \(\Sigma\). Consider an arbitrary admissible stratification of \(\Sigma\). Let \(B\) be the stratum of this stratification whose closure contains the point \(a\), and let \(\gamma_2:[0,1]\to M\) be an arbitrary curve starting from \(a\), \(\gamma_2(0)=a\), such that \(\gamma_2(t)\in B\) for \(t > 0\). Then the germ \(f_b\) can be continued analytically along the composition of the curves \(\gamma_1\) and \(\gamma_2\).