The asymptotic accuracy of rational best approximations to ez on a disk

The method described by D. Braess (J. Approx. Theory40 (1984), 375–379) is applied to study approximation of e^z on a disk rather than an interval. Let E_mn be the distance in the supremum norm on ¦z¦ ? ? from e^z to the set of rational functions of type (m, n). The analog of Braess' result turns out to be $\text{E}{}_{\mathrm{mn}}\text{~}\text{m! n! ?}{}^{\mathrm{m\; +\; n\; +1}}\text{(m + n)! (m + n +1)!}$ as m + n → ∞ This formula was obtained originally for a special case by E. Saff (J. Approx. Theory9 (1973), 97–101).