In
mathematics,
monodromy is the study of how objects from
mathematical analysis,
algebraic topology,
algebraic geometry and
differential geometry behave as they 'run round' a
singularity. As the name implies, the fundamental meaning of
monodromy comes from 'running round singly'. It is closely associated with
covering maps and their degeneration into
ramification; the aspect giving rise to monodromy phenomena is that certain
functions we may wish to define fail to be
single-valued as we 'run round' a path encircling a singularity. The failure of monodromy is best measured by defining a
monodromy group: a
group of transformations acting on the data that encodes what does happen as we 'run round'.