We consider the existence problem of meromorphic solutions of the Fermat-type difference equation

$$ \begin{align*} f(z)^p+f(z+c)^q=h(z), \end{align*} $$

where $p,q$ are positive integers, and h has few zeros and poles in the sense that $N(r,h) + N(r,1/h) = S(r,h)$. As a particular case, we consider $h=e^g$, where g is an entire function. Additionally, we briefly discuss the case where h is small with respect to f in the standard sense $T(r,h)=S(r,f)$.

The tropical analogue of the lemma on the logarithmic derivative is generalised for noncontinuous tropical meromorphic functions, that is, piecewise linear functions that may have discontinuities. In addition, two Borel type results are generalised for piecewise continuous functions. With the generalisation of the tropical analogue of the lemma on the logarithmic derivative, several tropical analogues of Clunie and Mohon’ko type results are also automatically generalised for noncontinuous tropical meromorphic functions.

We prove a difference analogue of the celebrated Tumura–Hayman–Clunie theorem. Let f be a transcendental entire function, let c be a nonzero constant and let n be a positive integer. If f and $\Delta _c^n f$ omit zero in the whole complex plane, then either $f(z)=\exp (h_1(z)+C_1 z)$, where $h_1$ is an entire function of period c and $\exp (C_1 c)\neq 1$, or $f(z)=\exp (h_2(z)+C_2 z)$, where $h_2$ is an entire function of period $2c$ and $C_2$ satisfies

$$ \begin{align*} \bigg(\frac{1+\exp(C_2c)}{1-\exp(C_2 c)}\bigg)^{2n}=1. \end{align*} $$

It is known that, in the unit disc as well as in the whole complex plane, the growth of the analytic coefficients $A_0,\dotsc ,A_{k-2}$ of

$$ \begin{align*} f^{(k)} + A_{k-2} f^{(k-2)} + \dotsb + A_1 f'+ A_0 f = 0, \quad k\geqslant 2, \end{align*} $$

$D(0,R)$

$0<R\leqslant \infty $

We investigate Carlson–Griffiths’ equidistribution theory of meormorphic mappings from a complete Kähler manifold into a complex projective algebraic manifold. By using a technique of Brownian motions developed by Atsuji, we obtain a second main theorem in Nevanlinna theory provided that the source manifold is of nonpositive sectional curvature. In particular, a defect relation follows if some growth condition is imposed.

We consider meromorphic solutions of functional-differential equations

\[ f^{(k)}(z)=a(f^{n}\circ g)(z)+bf(z)+c, \]

$n,\,~k$

$f$

$g$

$f$

$a(\neq 0)$

$b$

$c$

$g$

$f$

$a(\neq 0)$

$b$

$c$

$\mathbb {C}$

We prove several results on unavoidable families of meromorphic functions. For instance, we give new examples of families of cardinality 3 that are unavoidable with respect to the set of meromorphic functions on $\mathbb C$ . We further obtain families consisting of less than three functions that are unavoidable with respect to certain subsets of meromorphic functions. In the other direction, we show that for every meromorphic function f, there exists an entire function that avoids f on $\mathbb C$ .

Complex linear differential equations with entire coefficients are studied in the situation where one of the coefficients is an exponential polynomial and dominates the growth of all the other coefficients. If such an equation has an exponential polynomial solution $f$, then the order of $f$ and of the dominant coefficient are equal, and the two functions possess a certain duality property. The results presented in this paper improve earlier results by some of the present authors, and the paper adjoins with two open problems.

A classical theorem of Frei states that if $A_p$ is the last transcendental function in the sequence $A_0,\ldots ,A_{n-1}$ of entire functions, then each solution base of the differential equation $f^{(n)}+A_{n-1}f^{(n-1)}+\cdots +A_{1}f'+A_{0}f=0$ contains at least $n-p$ entire functions of infinite order. Here, the transcendental coefficient $A_p$ dominates the growth of the polynomial coefficients $A_{p+1},\ldots ,A_{n-1}$ . By expressing the dominance of $A_p$ in different ways and allowing the coefficients $A_{p+1},\ldots ,A_{n-1}$ to be transcendental, we show that the conclusion of Frei’s theorem still holds along with an additional estimation on the asymptotic lower bound for the growth of solutions. At times, these new refined results give a larger number of linearly independent solutions of infinite order than the original theorem of Frei. For such solutions, we show that $0$ is the only possible finite deficient value. Previously, this property has been known to hold for so-called admissible solutions and is commonly cited as Wittich’s theorem. Analogous results are discussed for linear differential equations in the unit disc, as well as for complex difference and complex q-difference equations.

The Fermat type functional equations $(*)\, f_1^n+f_2^n+\cdots +f_k^n=1$, where n and k are positive integers, are considered in the complex plane. Our focus is on equations of the form (*) where it is not known whether there exist non-constant solutions in one or more of the following four classes of functions: meromorphic functions, rational functions, entire functions, polynomials. For such equations, we obtain estimates on Nevanlinna functions that transcendental solutions of (*) would have to satisfy, as well as analogous estimates for non-constant rational solutions. As an application, it is shown that transcendental entire solutions of (*) when n = k(k − 1) with k ≥ 3, would have to satisfy a certain differential equation, which is a generalization of the known result when k = 3. Alternative proofs for the known non-existence theorems for entire and polynomial solutions of (*) are given. Moreover, some restrictions on degrees of polynomial solutions are discussed.

According to a conjecture by Yang, if $f(z)f^{(k)}(z)$ is a periodic function, where $f(z)$ is a transcendental entire function and $k$ is a positive integer, then $f(z)$ is also a periodic function. We propose related questions, which can be viewed as difference or differential-difference versions of Yang’s conjecture. We consider the periodicity of a transcendental entire function $f(z)$ when differential, difference or differential-difference polynomials in $f(z)$ are periodic. For instance, we show that if $f(z)^{n}f(z+\unicode[STIX]{x1D702})$ is a periodic function with period $c$, then $f(z)$ is also a periodic function with period $(n+1)c$, where $f(z)$ is a transcendental entire function of hyper-order $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{2}(f)<1$ and $n\geq 2$ is an integer.

We prove that all transcendental entire functions have infinite topological entropy.

In this article, we establish a new estimate for the Gaussian curvature of open Riemann surfaces in Euclidean three-space with a specified conformal metric regarding the uniqueness of the holomorphic maps of these surfaces. As its applications, we give new proofs on the unicity problems for the Gauss maps of various classes of surfaces, in particular, minimal surfaces in Euclidean three-space, constant mean curvature one surfaces in the hyperbolic three-space, maximal surfaces in the Lorentz–Minkowski three-space, improper affine spheres in the affine three-space and flat surfaces in the hyperbolic three-space.

The classical result of Nevanlinna states that two nonconstantmeromorphic functions on the complex plane having the same images for five distinct values must be identically equal to each other. In this paper, we give a similar uniqueness theorem for the Gauss maps of complete minimal surfaces in Euclidean four-space.

We elucidate the geometric background of function-theoretic properties for the Gauss maps of several classes of immersed surfaces in three-dimensional space forms, for example, minimal surfaces in Euclidean three-space, improper affine spheres in the affine three-space, and constant mean curvature one surfaces and flat surfaces in hyperbolic three-space. To achieve this purpose, we prove an optimal curvature bound for a specified conformal metric on an open Riemann surface and give some applications. We also provide unicity theorems for the Gauss maps of these classes of surfaces.

We consider solutions to the algebraic differential equation $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}f^nf'+Q_d(z,f)=u(z)e^{v(z)}$, where $Q_d(z,f)$ is a differential polynomial in $f$ of degree $d$ with rational function coefficients, $u$ is a nonzero rational function and $v$ is a nonconstant polynomial. In this paper, we prove that if $n\ge d+1$ and if it admits a meromorphic solution $f$ with finitely many poles, then

$$\begin{equation*} f(z)=s(z)e^{v(z)/(n+1)} \quad \mbox {and}\quad Q_d(z,f)\equiv 0. \end{equation*}$$

$f$

$f'p_k(f)+q_m(f)$

$\alpha $

$p_k(f), q_m(f)$

$f$

$k$

$m$

$k\ge m+1$

In this paper we study uniqueness of entire functions sharing a non-zero finite value with linear differential polynomials and address a result of W.Wang and P. Li.

Working from a half-plane result of Fletcher and Langley, we show that if f is an integer-valued function on some subset of the natural numbers of positive lower density and is meromorphic of sufficiently small exponential type in the plane, then f is a polynomial.

According to the classical Borel lemma, any positive nondecreasing continuous function T satisfiesT(r+1/T(r))≤2T(r) outside a possible exceptional set of finite linear measure. This lemma plays an important role in the theory of entire and meromorphic functions, where the increasing function T is either the logarithm of the maximum modulus function, or the Nevanlinna characteristic. As a result, exceptional sets appear throughout Nevanlinna theory, in particular in Nevanlinna’s second main theorem. In this paper, we consider generalizations of Borel’s lemma. Conversely, we consider ways in which certain inequalities can be modified so as to remove exceptional sets. All results discussed are presented from the point of view of real analysis.

We prove that if two transcendental meromorphic functions share all limit values from a set of positive linear measure on a rectifiable Jordan arc, then they share all limit values.