Math 6350 Homework #7 Solution

1. Ahlfors p. 123 #4: If f (z) is analytic for |z| < 1 and |f (z)| 1/(1 |z|), find the best
estimate of |f (n) (0)| that Cauchys inequality will yield. (That is, find the optimal r
in (25).)
Solution: On the circle C of radius r around zero, we have
|f ()|

1
1r

by assumption. Thus we use M = 1/(1 r) to get

|f (n) (0)| n!

1
.
r)

rn (1

We need to minimize the right hand side as a function of r, which is equivalent to

maximizing rn (1 r) for r (0, 1). Since the derivative is nrn1 (n + 1)rn , the
n
maximum occurs at r = n+1
, and we get
|f (n) (0)|

n!(n + 1)n+1
.
nn

2. Suppose you want to find an estimate for the error in approximating f (x) = ex sin x
at x = 1/2 by P3 (x), the Maclaurin polynomial
f 00 (0) 2 f (3) (0) 3
x +
x.
2!
3!
Estimate the error using Calculus II methods, then estimate the error using the remainder formula (29). Which method does better?
P3 (x) = f (0) + f 0 (0)x +

Solution: In Calculus II we would compute the maximum M4 of f (4) (x) on the interval
[0, 21 ] and obtain the bound
|f ( 21 ) P3 ( 12 )|

M4
.
4! 24

We easily compute that f (4) (x) = 4ex sin x and the maximum of this is
M4 = |f (4) ( 12 )| = 4e1/2 sin 12 = 3.16,
which leads to the bound |f ( 21 ) P3 ( 21 )| 0.008.
To use the remainder formula
R4 ( 12 )

( 21

0)

fn ( 12 )

1
= 4
2 2i

Z
C

f () d
,
( 12 ) n

we need to pick a circle C of radius r larger than 12 . Using the formula

p
|f (rei )| = er cos cosh (r sin ) cos2 (r cos )
er cos cosh r sin = 12 (er cos +r sin + er cos r sin )
er

,
1

we obtain

er 2
|R4 ( 12 )|
32
The maximum of (r 12 )r3 er
we get

Z
C

er 2
1
|d| 1
=
.
1
4
16 (r 12 )r3
|| 2 ||

occurs around r = 3 where its about equal to one, so

|R4 ( 12 )|

1
0.06.
16

Certainly the Calculus II method does better.

3. Ahlfors p. 130 #2: Show that a function which is analytic in the whole plane and has
a nonessential singularity at reduces to a polynomial.
Solution: Let f be such a function, and define g(z) = f (1/z). Then by definition of
essential singularity at infinity, we know that g has a nonessential singularity at z = 0.
Hence either it is removable or it is a pole of g.
If the singularity is removable then g is bounded near zero and so f is bounded at
infinity, but the only analytic functions that are bounded on the entire complex plane
are constants.
On the other hand if the singularity is a pole, then we must have some singular part
by the discussion on page 128129, which we write as
g(z) =

n
X

ck z k + h(z)

k=1

where h is analytic at 0, n is some positive integer, and ck are some constants. Therefore
we have
n
X
ck z k + j(z),
f (z) = g(1/z) =
k=1

where j(z) = h(1/z).

Although a priori we are not sure if j is defined at z = 0, the expansion tells us that
j(z) is bounded in a neighborhood of zero since its just f (z) minus a polynomial;
hence j is actually analytic on the entire complex plane and has a finite limit h(0) as
z , which means it must actually be constant. Therefore f is a polynomial.
4. Ahlfors p. 130 #4: Show that any function which is meromorphic in the extended
plane is rational.
Solution: We first want to show there are only a finite number of poles. If there were
an infinite number of poles, then they could not all be contained in a bounded set or
else they would not be isolated. Hence there would have to be a sequence of them
which converged to infinity. But then the function 1/f (1/z) would have a sequence
of zeroes which converged to the origin, and the origin would not be an isolated zero
(which contradicts the fact that the original function is assumed to have an isolated
singularity at infinity).
2

So there are a finite number of poles {b1 , . . . , bn } and each pole bk has some order rk ,
which implies that
g(z) = (z b1 )r1 (z bn )rn f (z)
is analytic everywhere on the complex plane, and has a pole or zero of finite order
at infinity since f does. By the previous problem, g(z) must be a polynomial, and
therefore f (z) is a quotient of polynomials.
5. How many roots of f (z) = z 4 + z + 1 are there in the unit disc? Draw a picture of
= f where is the unit circle to determine n(, 0).
Solution: If is the unit circle then n(, 0) is the number of roots. The easiest thing
to do is to ask a graphing utility to plot f . I get:

It is easy to look at this graph and count the winding around w = 0; the graph goes
counterclockwise twice around w = 0 and the other loops dont matter. Hence there
must be exactly two roots of z 4 + z + 1 inside the unit disc.
Numerical calculation shows that the roots are
0.7271 + 0.9341i,

0.7271 + 0.4300i,

0.7271 0.4300i,

0.7271 0.9341i.

Two of these have absolute value 1.184 and two of them have absolute value 0.8447,
which agrees with what we found graphically.
6. Ahlfors p. 133 #1: Determine explicitly the largest disk about the origin whose image
under the mapping w = z 2 + z is one to one.
Solution: We need to solve z12 + z1 = z22 + z2 and see what the first solution with
z1 6= z2 is. We have
(z1 z2 )(z1 + z2 ) + (z1 z2 ) = 0,
or
(z1 z2 )(z1 + z2 + 1) = 0.
3

If we want z1 6= z2 then we must have z1 + z2 + 1 = 0. If |z1 | < r and |z2 | < r, then we
have
1 = |z1 + z2 | < 2r
and thus if r 21 we will get a contradiction; hence on the open disk of radius
function is one-to-one.

1
2

the

and z2 = 2r3
.
On the other hand if r > 12 (and r < 23 ), we may choose z1 = 2r+1
4
4
r
1
r
r
32r
31
1
Observe that |z1 | < 2 + 4 < 2 + 2 = r, and |z2 | = 4 < 4 = 2 < r as long as r < 32 .
So the largest radius is 21 .
7. Ahlfors p. 136 #1 and #3: Show by use of (36), or directly, that |f (z)| 1 for |z| 1
implies
|f 0 (z)|
1

.
2
1 |f (z)|
1 |z|2
Prove that equality implies that f (z) is a linear transformation.
Solution: When M = R = 1, equation (36) becomes


 f (z) f (z )   z z 

0 
0 
.


 1 f (z0 )f (z)   1 z0 z 
Rewrite this in the form

 

 f (z) f (z0 )   1 f (z0 )f (z) 


 z z0   1 z0 z  .
Since this is true for all z 6= z0 in the disc, it will still be true in the limit as z z0 .
When this happens the left side becomes the absolute value of |f 0 (z0 )|, and we get


 1 |f (z0 )|2 
0

,
|f (z0 )| 
1 |z0 |2 
which is equivalent to what we want.
A direct proof involves applying linear transformations to an arbitrary disc-preserving
analytic map so that it will become a map that also preserves the origin. (This is the
same thing we do to derive formula (36).)
So suppose |f (z)| 1 whenever |z| < 1, and that f (z0 ) = w0 for some |z0 | < 1 and
|w0 | < 1. Let
z w0
z z0
S(z) =
and
T (z) =
.
1 w0 z
1 z0 z
Then S and T are both invertible and preserve the unit disc, and S(w0 ) = 0 and
T (z0 ) = 0. Therefore the function



1
g(z) = S f T (z)
preserves the unit disc and has g(0) = 0. We therefore have |g 0 (0)| 1.
4

By the Chain Rule we have

|g 0 (0)| = |S 0 (w0 )||f 0 (z0 )||(T 1 )0 (0)| =

|S 0 (w0 )||f 0 (z0 )|

,
|T 0 (z0 )|

which we can solve to get

|f 0 (z0 )| =
We easily compute that S 0 (w0 ) =
want.

|T 0 (z0 )||g 0 (0)|

|T 0 (z0 )|

.
|S 0 (w0 )|
|S 0 (w0 )|

1
1|w0 |2

and T 0 (z0 ) =

1
,
1|z0 |2

which gives us what we

Now to solve #3 (to see what happens when we have equality) its a bit easier to use
the second derivation since that reduces it to the Schwarz Lemma and gives an equality
criterion. So if |f 0 (z0 )| is equal to the right side, then we must have |g 0 (0)| = 1 and this
implies that g is just a rotation (multiplication by a complex number of unit modulus),
which in particular is an LFT. Hence f = S 1 g T is a composition of LFTs and
therefore also an LFT.