A square-free polynomial f of degree  in the variable y with coefficients in a field  has  roots in the algebraic closure of the field . These roots are called the Puiseux expansions of f at x=p. Each Puiseux expansion is of the form  for some integer  ( is called the ramification index of the Puiseux expansion), and some integer  and elements  in the algebraic closure of .

The polynomial f must be square-free, otherwise the puiseux procedure does not work.

If f is irreducible then f gives an algebraic extension  of . Instead of giving f, this algebraic extension can also be specified with a RootOf a of f. This a can be viewed as a multivalued function in x. The Puiseux expansions give the local expansions of this multivalued function.

The procedure puiseux determines the field  from the input. The groundfield  of the computation is the smallest field such that f and p are in  .

The Puiseux expansions are only computed up to conjugation over . So if a number of expansions are algebraically conjugated over  then only one of these expansions is given.

The Puiseux expansions are computed modulo . So if for instance n=10, then the term  would be computed, but not the term .

If n=0 then the expansions are not computed modulo , but in this case the number of terms that is computed is precisely the number that is needed to distinguish the expansions from the other expansions. If n='minimal' then the same output is given.

To avoid an output containing fractional powers of x one can specify a fifth argument T. Then the Puiseux expansions in the output are represented in a different way, namely as

So then x and y are expressed in terms of a local parameter.

Note: The Maple "alias" function does not recognize an alias in terms of another alias. Therefore, you must not use nested aliases for algebraic numbers because then the puiseux algorithm is not able to construct the field L over which the algebraic function is defined.