We use Zalcman’s lemma to study a uniqueness question for meromorphic functions where certain associated nonlinear differential polynomials share a nonzero value. The results in this paper extend Theorem 1 in Yang and Hua [‘Uniqueness and value-sharing of meromorphic functions’, Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn. Math. 22 (1997), 395–406] and Theorem 1 in Fang [‘Uniqueness and value sharing of entire functions’, Comput. Math. Appl. 44 (2002), 823–831]. Our reasoning in this paper also corrects a defect in the reasoning in the proof of Theorem 4 in Bhoosnurmath and Dyavanal [‘Uniqueness and value sharing of meromorphic functions’, Comput. Math. Appl. 53 (2007), 1191–1205].

We provide uniqueness results for holomorphic functions in the Nevanlinna class which bridge those previously obtained by Hayman and by Lyubarskii and Seip. In particular, we propose certain classes of hyperbolically separated sequences in the disc, in terms of the rate of non-tangential accumulation to the boundary (the outer limits of this spectrum of classes being, respectively, the sequences with a non-tangential cluster set of positive measure, and the sequences satisfying the Blaschke condition). For each of those classes, we give a critical condition of radial decrease on the modulus which will force a Nevanlinna class function to vanish identically.

AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 30D50; 30D55

We discuss the problem of the uniqueness of the solution to the Cauchy problem for second-order, linear, uniformly parabolic differential equations. For most uniqueness theorems the solution must be uniformly bounded with respect to the time variable $t$, but some authors have shown an interest in relaxing the growth conditions in time.

In 1997, Chung proved that, in the case of the heat equation, uniqueness holds under the restriction: $|u(x,t)|\leq C\exp[(a/t)^{\alpha}+a|x|^2]$, for some constants $C,a>0$, $0\lt\alpha\lt1$. The proof of Chung’s theorem is based on ultradistribution theory, in particular it relies heavily on the fact that the coefficients are constants and that the solution is smooth. Therefore, his method does not work for parabolic operators with arbitrary coefficients. In this paper we prove a uniqueness theorem for uniformly parabolic equations imposing the same growth condition as Chung on the solution $u(x,t)$. At the centre of the proof are the maximum principle, Gaussian-type estimates for short cylinders and a boot-strapping argument.

AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 35K15