On the zeros of meromorphic functions of the formf(z)=Σ k=1 ∞ a k/z−z k

We study the zero distribution of meromorphic functions of the formf(z)=Σ _k=1 ^{∞ a} k/z−z _k wherea _k >0. Noting thatf is the complex conjugate of the gradient of a logarithmic potential, our results have application in the study of the equilibrium points of such a potential. Furthermore, answering a question of Hayman, we also show that the derivative of a meromorphic function of order at most one, minimal type has infinitely many zeros. Supported by an NSF grant. Research carried out during a visit to the University of Illinois, funded by an NSF grant. Research carried out at the University of York while serving as a British Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) fellow. The author gratefully acknowledges the hospitality and support extended to him by the Department of Mathematics.     

Nonvanishing derivatives and normal families

We consider the differential operators Ψ _k , defined by Ψ₁(y) =y and Ψ _k+1(y)=yΨ _k y+d/dz(Ψ _k (y)) fork ∈ ℕ fork∈ ℕ. We show that ifF is meromorphic in ℂ and Ψ _k F has no zeros for somek≥3, and if the residues at the simple poles ofF are not positive integers, thenF has the formF(z)=((k-1)z+a)/(z ²+β z+γ) orF(z)=1/(az+β) where α, β, γ ∈ ℂ. If the residues at the simple poles ofF are bounded away from zero, then this also holds fork=2. We further show that, under suitable additional conditions, a family of meromorphic functionsF is normal if each Ψ _k (F) has no zeros. These conditions are satisfied, in particular, if there exists δ>0 such that Re (Res(F, a)) <−δ for all polea of eachF in the family. Using the fact that Ψ _k (f ^′/f) =f ^(k)/f, we deduce in particular that iff andf ^(k) have no zeros for allf in some familyF of meromorphic functions, wherek≥2, then {f ^′/f :f ∈F} is normal. The first author is supported by the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development G.I.F., G-643-117.6/1999, and INTAS-99-00089. The second author thanks the DAAD for supporting a visit to Kiel in June–July 2002. Both authors thank Günter Frank for helpful discussions.     

On meromorphic solutions of <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis><Superscript>2</Superscript> + <Emphasis Type="Italic">g</Emphasis><Superscript>2</Superscript> = 1

We show that meromorphic solutions f, g of f ² + g ² = 1 in C² must be constant, if f _z2 and g _z1 have the same zeros (counting multiplicities). We also apply the result to characterize meromorphic solutions of certain nonlinear partial differential equations.     

On Homogeneous Differential Polynomials of Meromorphic Functions

In this paper, we study one conjecture proposed by W. Bergweiler and show that any transcendental meromorphic functions f(z) have the form exp(αz+β) if f(z)f″(z)–a(f′ (z))²≠0, where . Moreover, an analogous normality criterion is obtained. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation and Science Technology Promotion Foundation of Fujian Province (2003)     

Gelfand pairs,K-spherical means and injectivity on the Heisenberg group

We study the injectivity properties of the spherical mean value operators associated to the Gelfand pairs (H ⁿ,K), whereK is a compact subgroup ofU(n). We show that these spherical mean value operators are injective onL ^p Hⁿ) for 1≤p<∞. Forp=∞, these operators are not injective. Nevertheless, if the spherical meansf*μ _i overK-orbits of sufficiently many points (z _i,t _i) ∈H ⁿ vanish, we identify a necessary and sufficient condition on the points (z _i,t _i) which guaranteesf=0. ForK=U(n), this is equivalent to the condition for the two-radius theorem. Research supported by N.B.H.M. Research Grant, Govt. of India.     

Sunyer-i-Balaguer’s almost elliptic functions and Yosida’s normal functions

We study the properties of two classes of meromorphic functions in the complex plane. The first one is the class of almost elliptic functions in the sense of Sunyer-i-Balaguer. This is the class of meromorphic functions f such that the family {f(z + h)} _h∈ℂ is normal with respect to the uniform convergence in the whole complex plane. Given two sequences of complex numbers, we provide sufficient conditions for themto be zeros and poles of some almost elliptic function. These conditions enable one to give (for the first time) explicit non-trivial examples of almost elliptic functions. The second class was introduced by K. Yosida, who called it the class of normal functions of the first category. This is the class of meromorphic functions f such that the family {f(z + h)} _h∈ℂ is normal with respect to the uniform convergence on compacta in the complex plane and no limit point of the family is a constant function. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for two sequences of complex numbers to be zeros and poles of some normal function of the first category and obtain a parametric representation for this class in terms of zeros and poles.     

Nonfree actions of countable groups and their characters

The paper studies the region of values of the system {c ₂, c ₃, f(z ₁), f′(z ₁)},where z ₁ is an arbitrary fixed point of the disk |z| < 1; f ∈ T,and the class T consists of all the functions f(z) = z + c ₂ z ² + c ₃z³ + ⋯ regular in the disk |z| < 1 that satisfy the condition Im z · Im f(z) > 0 for Im z ≠ 0. The region of values of f′(z ₁) in the subclass of functions f ∈ T with prescribed values c ₂, c ₃, and f(z ₁) is determined. Bibliography: 10 titles.     

Meromorphic functions sharing two small functions with its derivative

In this paper, we find all the forms of meromorphic functions f(z) that share the value 0 CM^∗, and share b(z)IM^∗ with g(z)=a₁(z)f(z)+a₂(z)f^′(z). And a₁(z), a₂(z) and b(z) (a₂(z),b(z)?0) be small functions with respect to f(z). As an application, we show that some of nonlinear differential equations have no transcendental meromorphic solution.     

Normal families and shared functions of meromorphic functions

Let k be a positive integer, let M be a positive number, let F be a family of meromorphic functions in a domain D, all of whose zeros are of multiplicity at least k, and let h be a holomorphic function in D, h ≢ 0. If, for every f ∈ F, f and f ^(k) share 0, and |f(z)| ≥ M whenever f ^(k)(z) = h(z), then F is normal in D. The condition that f and f ^(k) share 0 cannot be weakened, and the condition that |f(z)| ≥ M whenever f ^(k)(z) = h(z) cannot be replaced by the condition that |f(z)| ≥ 0 whenever f ^(k)(z) = h(z). This improves some results due to Fang and Zalcman [2] etc.     

Distortion theorem for Bloch mappings on the unit ball <Emphasis Type="Italic">ℬ</Emphasis><Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Superscript>

In this paper, we obtain a version of subordination lemma for hyperbolic disk relative to hyperbolic geometry on the unit disk D. This subordination lemma yields the distortion theorem for Bloch mappings f ∈ H（B^n） satisfying ｜｜f｜｜0 = 1 and det f＇（0） = α ∈ （0, 1], where｜｜f｜｜0 = sup{（1 - ｜z｜^2 ）n＋1/2n det（f＇（z））[1/n ： z ∈ B^n}. Here we establish the distortion theorem from a unified perspective and generalize some known results. This distortion theorem enables us to obtain a lower bound for the radius of the largest univalent ball in the image of f centered at f（0）. When a = 1, the lower bound reduces to that of Bloch constant found by Liu. When n = 1, our distortion theorem coincides with that of Bonk, Minda and Yanagihara.     

Entire solutions of certain partial differential equations in<Emphasis Type="Bold">C</Emphasis><Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis></Superscript>

We describe entire solutions inC ⁿ of non-linear partial differential equations of the form (∂w/∂z _j ) ^k =f(w), wheref is a meromorphic function in the complex plane andk is a positive integer. Supported in part by the National Science Foundation (USA) Grant DMS-0100486.     

Asymptotic values of strongly normal functions

Letf be meromorphic in the open unit discD and strongly normal; that is,

Normal families of meromorphic functions with multiple zeros and poles

LetF be a family of functions meromorphic in the plane domainD, all of whose zeros and poles are multiple. Leth be a continuous function onD. Suppose that, for eachf ≠F,f ¹(z) εh(z) forz εD. We show that ifh(z) ≠ 0 for allz εD, or ifh is holomorphic onD but not identically zero there and all zeros of functions inF have multiplicity at least 3, thenF is a normal family onD. Partially supported by the Shanghai Priority Academic Discipline and by the NNSF of China Approved No. 10271122. Research supported by the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development, G.I.F. Grant No. G-643-117.6/1999.     

Families of meromorphic functions avoiding continuous functions

Leth ₁,h ₂ andh ₃ be continuous functions from the unit disk D into the Riemann sphereC such thath _i(z) ≠ h_j(z) (i ≠ j) for eachz∈D. We prove that the setF of all functionsf meromorphic on D such thatf(z)≠h _j (z) for allz ∈ D andj=1,2,3 is a normal family. The result and the method of the proof extend to quasimeromorphic functions in higher dimensions as well. The second author was supported by a Heisenberg fellowship of the DFG. The fourth author was partially supported by the Marsden Fund, New Zealand. This research was completed while the authors were attending a conference at Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach in Germany. The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to the Institute for providing a stimulating atmosphere and for its kind hospitality.     

On the Nevanlinna characteristic of <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">z</Emphasis>+<Emphasis Type="Italic">η</Emphasis>) and difference equations in the complex plane

We investigate the growth of the Nevanlinna characteristic of f(z+η) for a fixed η∈C in this paper. In particular, we obtain a precise asymptotic relation between T(r,f(z+η)) and T(r,f), which is only true for finite order meromorphic functions. We have also obtained the proximity function and pointwise estimates of f(z+η)/f(z) which is a discrete version of the classical logarithmic derivative estimates of f(z). We apply these results to give new growth estimates of meromorphic solutions to higher order linear difference equations. This also allows us to solve an old problem of Whittaker (Interpolatory Function Theory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1935) concerning a first order difference equation. We show by giving a number of examples that all of our results are best possible in certain senses. Finally, we give a direct proof of a result in Ablowitz, Halburd and Herbst (Nonlinearity 13:889–905, 2000) concerning integrable difference equations. This research was supported in part by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (HKUST6135/01P). The second author was also partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10501044) and the HKUST PDF Matching Fund.     

On the iteration of holomorphic self-maps of ℂ*

Letf be a holomorphic self-map of the punctured plane ℂ^*=ℂ\{0} with essentially singular points 0 and ∞. In this note, we discuss the setsI ₀(f)={z ∈ ℂ^*:f ⁿ (z) → 0,n → ∞} andI _∞(f)={z ∈ ℂ^*:f ⁿ (z) → 0,n → ∞}. We try to find the relation betweenI ₀(f),I _∞(t) andJ(f). It is proved that both the boundary ofI ₀(f) and the boundary ofI _∞)f) equal toJ(f),I ₀(f) ∩J(f) ≠ θ andI _∞(f) ∩J(f) ≠ θ. As a consequence of these results, we find bothI ₀(f) andI _∞(f) are not doubly-bounded. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China     

Some Arithmetical Properties of the Generating Power Series for the Sequence {ζ(2k+1)}k=1 ∞

Let f_odd(z):= ∑^∞ _k=1ζ(2k + 1)z^2k be the power series with the values of the Riemann ζ function at odd integers as coefficients. This function can be analytically continued to a meromorphic function over C. We prove that 1 and the values of f_odd at rational points with relatively prime denominators are linearly independent over ―Q. Some arithmetical properties of the sequence {ζ(2k+1)} _k=1 ^∞ are deduced. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On solutions of the Beltrami equation

In this paper we study the existence and uniqueness of solutions of the Beltrami equationf _-z (z) =Μ(z)f _z (z), whereΜ(z) is a measurable function defined almost everywhere in a plane domain ‡ with ‖ΜΜ∞ = 1-Here the partialsf _z andf _z of a complex valued functionf _z exist almost everywhere. In case ‖Μ‖∞ ≤9 < 1, it is well-known that homeomorphic solutions of the Beltrami equation are quasiconformal mappings. In case ‖Μ‖∞= 1, much less is known. We give sufficient conditions onΜ(z) which imply the existence of a homeomorphic solution of the Beltrami equation, which isACL and whose partial derivativesf _z andf _z are locally inL ^q for anyq < 2. We also give uniqueness results. The conditions we consider improve already known results.     

On power deformations of univalent functions

For an analytic function f (z) on the unit disk |z| < 1 with f (0) = f′(0) − 1 = 0 and f (z) ≠ 0, 0 < |z| < 1, we consider the power deformation f _c (z) = z(f (z)/z) ^c for a complex number c. We determine those values c for which the operator maps a specified class of univalent functions into the class of univalent functions. A little surprisingly, we will see that the set is described by the variability region of the quantity zf′(z)/ f (z), |z| < 1, for most of the classes that we consider in the present paper. As an unexpected by-product, we show boundedness of strongly spirallike functions.     

Properties of differences of meromorphic functions

Let f be a transcendental meromorphic function. We propose a number of results concerning zeros and fixed points of the difference g(z) = f(z + c) − f(z) and the divided difference g(z)/f(z).