Corrigendum to: ``On a class of prime entire functions'' (Q1995614)

The authors considered in [Acta Math. Sin., Engl. Ser. 25, No. 10, 1647--1652 (2009; Zbl 1185.30020)] a factorization problem for a class of entire functions \(F_a(z)=H(z)+a\alpha(z)\), \(a\in\mathbb{C}\). Here they give a corrigendum to this paper. The entire functions \(H\) and \(\alpha\) have the following properties: \(\alpha\) has at least one zero; \(\alpha\) is a small function with respect to \(H\); \(H'\) and \(\alpha'\) have no common zeros. It was stated as Theorem 1.2 in [loc. cit.] that ``the set \(\{a\in \mathbb{C}: F_a\ \text{is not prime in entire sense}\}\) is at most countable''. However this is not true. The reason is that Lemma 1.1 in that paper was not correct, where it was stated that ``there exists a countable set \(E\) in \(\mathbb{C}\) such that for every \(c\in\mathbb{C}\), the simultaneous equations \(F_a(z)=c\), \(F'_a(z)=0\) have at most one common solution, provided that \(a\in\mathbb{C}\setminus E\)''. In this corrigendum, counterexamples are given, and, in place of that Lemma 1.1, the following result is proved: ``There exists a countable set \(E\) in \(\mathbb{C}\) such that for each \(c\in\mathbb{C}\) and for any \(z\), \(w\in\{z\in\mathbb{C} : F_a(z)=c, F'_a(z)=0\}\), \(\alpha(z)=\alpha(w)\) for each \(a\not\in E\)''.