single-valued, a. Math.
[single a.]
Having a unique value for each value of its argument(s); that maps to one and only one point, number, etc. Hence single-valuedness, the property of being single-valued.
| 1879 Maxwell Electr. & Magn. (1881) II. 252 The potential of the magnetic system is single valued at every point of space. 1882 [see reverse n. I a]. 1946 Nature 27 July 128/2 In Indian longitudes..the base of the stratosphere is always sharp and clear-cut and single-valued in summer, but is just one of several inversions in winter. 1968 C. G. Kuper Introd. Theory Superconductivity iii. 52 To guarantee single-valuedness, we must impose the flux quantization condition. 1970 G. K. Woodgate Elem. Atomic Struct. ii. 17 Thus ϕ, like θ, is a single-valued function of its argument. This single-valuedness is not a necessary postulate of wave mechanics, but a result derived from the condition that we are working in a central field in (r, θ, ϕ) space. |