Picard–Lefschetz theory

In mathematics, Picard–Lefschetz theory studies the topology of a complex manifold by looking at the critical points of a holomorphic function on the manifold. It was introduced by Émile Picard for complex surfaces in his book Picard & Simart (1897), and extended to higher dimensions by Solomon Lefschetz (1924). It is a complex analog of Morse theory that studies the topology of a real manifold by looking at the critical points of a real function. Pierre Deligne and Nicholas Katz (1973) extended Picard–Lefschetz theory to varieties over more general fields, and Deligne used this generalization in his proof of the Weil conjectures.