Separate monitor thread

Hello,

First off, I think I mistakenly posted this under "Open source OpenMP":

http://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/topic/497456

I am using the Intel Composer Fortran Compiler 14.0.0.

What is the purpose of the separate monitor thread OpenMP creates?

See http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/threading-fortran-applications-...

In my Fortran application, the additional thread is always spawned, even when setting OMP_SET_NUM_THREADS(1).

Granted, it doesn't look like it does much, per the Linux "ps -L" command, but I haven't seen any easily accessible information describing the purpose of the additional thread at a high level.

Thanks in advance.