Relatively weakly open sets in closed balls of Banach spaces,and the centralizer

Let f be a transcendental entire function and let I(f) denote the set of points that escape to infinity under iteration. We give conditions which ensure that, for certain functions, I(f) is connected. In particular, we show that I(f) is connected if f has order zero and sufficiently small growth or has order less than 1/2 and regular growth. This shows that, for these functions, Eremenko’s conjecture that I(f) has no bounded components is true. We also give a new criterion related to I(f) which is sufficient to ensure that f has no unbounded Fatou components.