SOLUTIONS TO HW3

Stein and Shakarchi, Chapter 2

Problem 1. (a) We let

∞
n
X
f (z) = z2 .
n=0
Since all of the coefficients are either 0 or 1, it is clear that the radius of convergence is 1.
Now let θ = 2πp
2k
, with p and k positive integers. We then have, for r < 1,
k−1 n
∞ n
k−1 n
∞
2πip2 2πip2 2πp2
2 n i 2k 2n i 2k 2 n i 2k n
X X X X
iθ
f (re ) = r e + r e = r e + r2 .
n=0 n=k n=0 n=k
Note that the first sum is bounded for all r < 1, and all values of p and k. Letting r approach
1, we see that the f (reiθ ) diverges. Therefore the function f (z) has singularities at all points
2πip
of the form e 2k , that is, at all 2nth roots of unity. Such points are dense in the unit circle.
Now given any point w on the boundary C of D, let U be a open set in C containing
2πip
w. Since the set of 2nth roots of unity is dense in C, there exists a point of the form e 2k
contained in U . If w were regular, then there would exist a holomorphic function g which
satisfied f = g on U ∩ D. We would then necessarily have
2πip 2πip
lim− g(re 2k ) = lim− f (re 2k ) = ∞,
r→1 r→1
which contradicts the holomorphicity of g on U . Therefore, no point of C is regular, and f
cannot be continued analytically past D.
(b) Now let 0 < α < ∞, and
∞
n
X
fα (z) = 2−nα z 2 .
n=0
Again, the function fα (z) converges (uniformly) on the open unit disc D. Now, fix θ, and
note that we have  
∞ ∞
X  X
−nα iθ2n  1
2 e ≤ 2−nα = < ∞,

1 − 2−α

 n=0  n=0
since we assume α > 0. Let us set Aθ := ∞ −nα iθ2n
P
n=0 2 e , and define a function Fα (z) on the
closed unit disc D by (
iθ fα (reiθ ) if r < 1,
Fα (re ) =
Aθ if r = 1.
By Abel’s theorem (Chapter I, Exercise 15), we have
∞
n n Abel
X
iθ iθ
lim− Fα (re ) = lim− fα (re ) = lim− 2−nα r2 eiθ2 = Aθ = Fα (eiθ )
r→1 r→1 r→1
n=0

(this is actually a very subtle point). Since Fα (eiθ ) is continuous as a function of θ, we

obtain that Fα (z) is a continuous function on D, which is holomorphic on D (note that it
1
2 SOLUTIONS TO HW3

doesn’t make sense to talk about holomorphicity on the boundary of D, since holomorphicity
is defined on open sets).
Assume now that Fα (z) can be analytically continued past the closed unit disc. This means
that there exists an open region Ω satisfying Ω ∩ D 6= ∅, Ω 6⊂ D, and a holomorphic function
G(z) on Ω such that G(z) = Fα (z) on Ω ∩ D.
Assume first that 0 < α < 1. Since Ω is open, connected, and not entirely contained in
D, the intersection Ω ∩ C is nonempty, and must contain a segment of the unit circle C.
Since G(z) is holomorphic on Ω, its restriction to Ω ∩ C will be differentiable. However, the
restriction of G(z) to Ω ∩ C is equal to Fα (z), and from Book I, we know that the function
of θ
∞
n
X
2−nα eiθ2
n=0

is not differentiable. Thus we obtain a contradiction.

Now assume that α > 1, and α is not an integer, and assume Fα (z) extends past D. We
define an operator D on holomorphic functions by

dg(z)
D(g(z)) := z .
dz
Note that on the open unit disc D, we have

D(fα (z)) = fα−1 (z).

Now let Ω and G(z) be as before. Note that the condition Ω∩D 6= ∅ actually implies Ω∩D 6= ∅.
Moreover, the set Ω ∩ D is open. Choose a positive integer m such that 0 < α − m < 1. Then
on the open set Ω ∩ D we have

G(z) = Fα (z) = fα (z),

which implies

◦ · · · ◦ D}(G(z)) = Dm (G(z)) = Dm (fα (z)) = fα−m (z).

|D ◦ D {z
m times

Since G(z) is a holomorphic function on Ω, so is Dm (G(z)). But now we obtain a contradiction

as above: if such a function G(z) existed, then Dm (G(z)) would have to agree with Fα−m (z)
on Ω ∩ C, which is not differentiable.
Finally, if α = m is an integer, then any extension G(z) of fm would have to satisfy
∞
n
X
m m
D (G(z)) = D (fm (z)) = f (z) = z2
n=0

on Ω ∩ D, where f (z) is the function of part (a). Such a function G(z) would not even extend
to Ω ∩ C, and we obtain a contradiction.
 SOLUTIONS TO HW3 3

Problem 2. Let
∞
X
F (z) = d(n)z n
n=1

for |z| < 1, where d(n) is the number of divisors of n. Using a geometric series, we get
∞ ∞
X zn X
n 1
= z
n=1
1 − zn n=1
1 − zn
∞
X ∞
X
n
= z z nk
n=1 k=0
∞ X
X ∞
= z nk
n=1 k=1
X∞
= |{(n, k) ∈ N2 : nk = m}|z m
m=1
X∞
= |{n ∈ N : there exists a k such that nk = m}|z m
m=1
X∞
= d(m)z m .
m=1

Note that for 0 < r < 1, F (r) takes on positive values. Therefore, using the Taylor expansion
of the logarithm, we get
∞
X rn
|F (r)| = F (r) =
n=1
1 − rn
∞
1 X rn
=
1 − r n=1 1 + r + . . . + rn−1
∞
1 X rn
>
1 − r n=1 n
−1
= log(1 − r)
1−r  
1 1
= log .
1−r 1−r

We see that the last quantity goes to ∞ as r approaches 1 from the left side.
Now let θ = 2πpq
, with p and q positive integers in lowest terms, with q > 2 for simplicity.
We can write F (reiθ ) as
q
∞ X 2πip(mq+k) q
∞ X 2πipk q ∞ 2πipk

iθ
X rmq+k e q X rmq+k e q X X rmq+k e q
F (re ) = 2πip(mq+k)
= 2πipk = 2πipk .
m=0 k=1 1− rmq+k e q
m=0 k=1 1 − rmq+k e q
k=1 m=0 1 − r
mq+k e q
4 SOLUTIONS TO HW3

Isolating the k = q term and using the triangle inequality, we obtain

∞
 ∞ 
X rmq  X rmq 
= 
 
1 − rmq 1−r  mq


m=1 m=1
2πipk
 q−1 ∞

 X X rmq+k e q 
= F (reiθ ) −
 
2πipk 
mq+k e q 
k=1 m=0 1 − r

2πipk
q−1 ∞ 
 
X X  rmq+k e q 
≤ |F (reiθ )| +

 2πipk 
mq+k e q 
k=1 m=0 1 − r

q−1 ∞ 
 
mq+k
iθ
X X r 
= |F (re )| +

 − 2πipk 
k=1 m=0 e
 q − rmq+k 
 X q−1 ∞
?
iθ 2π X
≤ |F (re )| + csc rmq+k
q k=1 m=0
 X q−1 ∞
iθ 2π k
X
= |F (re )| + csc r rmq
q k=1 m=0
 X q−1
iθ 2π 1
= |F (re )| + csc rk
q k=1 1 − rq
2π r + r2 + . . . + rq−1
 
iθ
= |F (re )| + csc .
q 1 − rq

To get the inequality (?), we use the following observation: we have

|e−iθk − rmq+k |2 = (e−iθk − rmq+k )(eiθk − rmq+k ) = 1 − 2 cos(θk)rmq+k + r2mq+2k ;

when π2 ≤ θk ≤ 3π 2
, the quantity − cos(θk) ≥ 0, and therefore the entire quantity |e−iθk −
rmq+k |2 is bounded below by 1. When |θk| ≤ π2 , then the function 1−2 cos(θk)rmq+k +r2mq+2k
attains its minimum when rmq+k = cos(θk), and therefore we have

p p
|e−iθk − rmq+k | = 1 − 2 cos(θk)rmq+k + r2mq+2k ≥ 1 − cos(θk)2 = | sin(θk)|.

Hence, taking the minimum over all values of k, we obtain

 
−iθk mq+k 2π
|e −r | ≥ sin ;
q

(note that when q = 2, we must use the bound |e−iθk − rmq+k | ≥ 1 instead).
 SOLUTIONS TO HW3 5

Therefore, using the previous bound (with rq in place of r), and the fact that 1 + r + . . . +
rq−1 < q, we obtain
∞
rmq 2π r + r2 + . . . + rq−1
X  
iθ
|F (re )| ≥ − csc
m=1
1 − rmq q 1 − rq
     
1 1 2π 2 q−1
> log − csc (r + r + . . . + r )
1 − rq 1 − rq q
  
1 1 1
= log
1 − r 1 + r + . . . + rq−1 1−r
    
1 2π 2 q−1
+ log − csc (r + r + . . . + r )
1 + r + . . . + rq−1 q
    
1 1 1 2π
> log − log (q) − (q − 1) csc .
q1−r 1−r q
2π
Assume now that r > 1 − q −2 e−2(q−1) csc( q ) . One can easily check that this implies
     
1 2π 1 1
log − log (q) − (q − 1) csc > log .
1−r q 2 1−r
2π
Hence, for r > 1 − q −2 e−2(q−1) csc( q ) , we have
 
iθ 1 1 1
|F (re )| ≥ log .
2q 1 − r 1−r
2πip
Thus, the function F (z) has a discontinuity at all points of the form e q . Such points are
dense in the unit circle, and F (z) cannot be analytically continued past D.

Problem 4. Let K be a compact set such that K C is not connected, and let z0 be a point
contained in a bounded component of K C . Let
1
f (z) = ,
z − z0
and assume that fn (z) is a sequence of polynomials converging uniformly to f (z) on K. We
define M = supz∈K (|z − z0 |), and note that M < ∞ since K is compact. By definition of
uniform convergence, there exists an N ∈ N such that if n > N , then
 

fn (z) − 1 < 1

 z − z0  M
for all z ∈ K; this is equivalent to
1
|(z − z0 )fn (z) − 1| < |z − z0 | ≤ 1.
M
Fix such an n. Since (z − z0 )fn (z) − 1 is holomorphic on all of C, it is certainly holomorphic
on the union of K and the connected component of K C which contains z0 . Assume we have
|(z 0 − z0 )fn (z 0 ) − 1| ≥ 1 for some z 0 in the connected component of K C containing z0 . The
maximum modulus principle says that a holomorphic function defined on an open region must
attain its maximum on the boundary of this open region. Since the connected component
containing z0 is bounded, there exists a point z 00 in K (on the boundary of K C ) such that
|(z 00 − z0 )fn (z 00 ) − 1| ≥ |(z 0 − z0 )fn (z 0 ) − 1| ≥ 1
6 SOLUTIONS TO HW3

which gives a contradiction. Therefore, we have |(z − z0 )fn (z) − 1| < 1 throughout the
connected component of K C containing z0 ; evaluating this at z = z0 gives the desired contra-
diction.

Problem 5. (a) Let p1 (z), p2 (z), . . . be an enumeration of all polynomials of the form
PN k
k=0 ak z , where ak ∈ Q + Qi (note that this set is countable), and assume that we have an
entire function F (z) and an increasing sequence {Mn }n≥1 of positive integers which satisfy
1
|F (z) − pn (z − Mn )| <
n
for z ∈ Dn (Mn ), the disc of radius n centered at Mn . Note that this is equivalent to the
statement
1
|F (z + Mn ) − pn (z)| <
n
for z ∈ Dn (0).
Let h(z) be an entire function, and let K be a compact set. One can easily check that there
exists a sequence {nk }k≥1 such that, for every ε > 0, there exists N for which
|pnk (z) − h(z)| < ε
whenever k > N , for z an element of K. Moreover, one can take the sequence {nk }k≥1 to be
increasing. Now, let k 0 be the first integer for which we have K ⊂ Dnk0 (0) (which is possible
since K is compact). Let us set Nk := Mnk+k0 −1 . We then have
|F (z + Nk ) − h(z)| ≤ |F (z + Mnk+k0 −1 ) − pnk+k0 −1 (z)| + |pnk+k0 −1 (z) − h(z)|
1
< + |pnk+k0 −1 (z) − h(z)|
nk+k0 −1
for z ∈ K. It is clear that given ε > 0, we may choose N large (and independent of z) such
that the latter term is less than ε. This verifies the claim.