ACM 95a/100a Lecture Notes

Niles A. Pierce
Caltech 2020

Regions in the Complex Plane

An -neighborhood of a point z0 is defined by (Figure 1):

|z − z0 | < ,  > 0.

z0
ε

Figure 1. -neighborhood of z0 .

z0 is an interior point of a set S if there is anz1-neighborhood of z0 contained in S.

If all points in S are interior points, S is an open

z0 set.
ρ
1
An open set is connected if any two points z1 and z2 in S can be joined by a “polygonal line”
ρ2 z0
contained in S (e.g., see Figure 2).
ε
z2
A domain is an open connected set (e.g., see Figure 2).

z1

w=f(z)

z0 w0

z0 ρ ε
1

δ ρ2

z2

z plane w plane
Figure 2. The set ρ1 < |z − z0 | < ρ2 is open and connected so it is a domain.

z0 is a boundary point of S if every -neighborhood contains a point in S and a point not in S.

w=f(z)
A region is a domain plus none, some or all boundary points.
w0
ε
A region containing all of itsz0 boundary points is closed.
δ
A set S is bounded if there is a positive real number M such that |z| < M for all z in S (i.e., S
is contained in a neighborhood of the origin).

z plane w plane
1
 z0
ε

Limits of Complex Functions z1

Suppose w = f (z) is defined in a deleted -neighborhood of z0 (i.e. excluding z0 ). We say

lim f (z)z0 = w0 (1)

z→z0
ρ
1
if for any  > 0 there exists a δ > 0 such that
ρ 2

|f (z) − w0 | <  when 0 z<

2
|z − z0 | < δ (2)

(i.e., any neighborhood of w0 contains all values of f (z) attained in some full deleted neighborhood
of z0 ).

w=f(z)

w0

z0 ε

z plane w plane

If a limit exists, it is unique: z can approach z0 from any direction in the complex plane.

Suppose f (z) = u(x, y) + iv(x, y), z0 = x0 + iy0 , w0 = u0 + iv0 . Then

lim = w0 ⇐⇒ lim u(x, y) = u0 and lim v(x, y) = v0 . (3)

z→z0 (x,y)→(x0 ,y0 ) (x,y)→(x0 ,y0 )

Hence, familiar limit properties hold (e.g. if limz→z0 f = a and limz→z0 g = b then limz→z0 f + g =
a + b and limz→z0 f g = ab).

f (z) is continuous at z0 if
lim f (z) = f (z0 ). (4)
z→z0

Using above limit properties, f g is continuous at z0 if f and g are. Example: f (z) = c and f (z) = z
are continuous so polynomial functions f (z) = c0 + c1 z + c2 z 2 + ... + cn z n are continuous.

2
Differentiability
Necessary Condition
A necessary condition for f (z) to be differentiable at z is that the Cauch-Riemann equations hold
at z.

Sufficient Condition
The function f (z) = u(x, y) + iv(x, y) is differentiable at z = x + iy if the partial derivatives ux , uy ,
vx , vy are continuous and satisfy the Cauchy-Riemann equations at z. (Proof: Brown & Churchill)

Differentiation Rules
As for real functions:

(f + g)0 = f 0 + g 0 (5)
0 0 0
(f g) = f g + f g (6)
 0
f gf 0 − f g 0
= , g 6= 0 (7)
g g2
d
f (g(z)) = f 0 (g(z))g 0 (z) (8)
dz

Analyticity
A function f (z) is analytic at a point z0 if f (z) is differentiable throughout some -neighborhood of z0 .

A function is analytic in a region if it is analytic at every point of the region.

• If S is a domain: differentiability ⇐⇒ analyticity.

• If S is a region, differentiability may be required on a larger set. For example: f (z) is analytic
for |z| ≤ 1 if f (z) is differentiable for |z| < 1 + δ with δ > 0.

A function is entire if it is analytic for the whole complex plane |z| < ∞.