Editing Analytic continuation (section)

==Examples of analytic continuation==
:<math>L(z) = \sum_{k=1}^\infin \frac{(-1)^{k+1}}{k}(z-1)^k</math>

is a power series corresponding to the [[natural logarithm]] near ''z'' = 1. This power series can be turned into a [[Germ (mathematics)|germ]]
:<math> g=\left(1,0,1,-\frac 1 2, \frac 1 3 , - \frac 1 4 , \frac 1 5 , - \frac 1 6 , \ldots\right) </math>

This germ has a radius of convergence of 1, and so there is a [[sheaf (mathematics)|sheaf]] ''S'' corresponding to it. This is the sheaf of the logarithm function.

The uniqueness theorem for analytic functions also extends to sheaves of analytic functions: if the sheaf of an analytic function contains the zero germ (i.e., the sheaf is uniformly zero in some neighborhood) then the entire sheaf is zero. Armed with this result, we can see that if we take any germ ''g'' of the sheaf ''S'' of the logarithm function, as described above, and turn it into a power series ''f''(''z'') then this function will have the property that exp(''f''(''z'')) = ''z''. If we had decided to use a version of the [[inverse function theorem]] for analytic functions, we could construct a wide variety of inverses for the exponential map, but we would discover that they are all represented by some germ in ''S''. In that sense, ''S'' is the "one true inverse" of the exponential map.

In older literature, sheaves of analytic functions were called ''[[multi-valued function]]s''. See [[sheaf (mathematics)|sheaf]] for the general concept.