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Zeros and poles

isolated singularity of a holomorphic function 𝑓 such that 1/𝑓 has a zero and is holomorphic at the singularity

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 9, 2025
Entity authorityQ899731
Source-derived summary

In complex analysis (a branch of mathematics), a pole is a certain type of singularity of a complex-valued function of a complex variable. It is the simplest type of non-removable singularity of such a function (see essential singularity). Technically, a point z0 is a pole of a function f if it is a zero of the function 1/f and 1/f is holomorphic (i.e. complex differentiable) in some neighbourhood of z0.

A function f is meromorphic in an open set U if for every point z of U there is a neighborhood of z in which at least one of f and 1/f is holomorphic.

If f is meromorphic in U, then a zero of f is a pole of 1/f, and a pole of f is a zero of 1/f. This induces a duality between zeros and poles, that is fundamental for the study of meromorphic functions. For example, if a function is meromorphic on the whole complex plane plus the point at infinity, then the sum of the multiplicities of its poles equals the sum of the multiplicities of its zeros.

Definitions

A function of a complex variable z is holomorphic in an open domain U if it is differentiable with respect to z at every point of U. Equivalently, it is holomorphic if it is analytic, that is, if its Taylor series exists at every point of U, and converges to the function in some neighbourhood of the point. A function is meromorphic in U if every point of U has a neighbourhood such that at least one of f and 1/f is holomorphic in it.

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“Zeros and poles” enters the record as isolated singularity of a holomorphic function 𝑓 such that 1/𝑓 has a zero and is holomorphic at the singularity. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Zeros, poles and isolated can confirm, complicate or overturn.

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This entry incorporates text from Zeros and poles” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.