Entire solutions of binomial differential equations (Q2129478)

\textit{W. K. Hayman} [Ann. Math. (2) 70, 9--42 (1959; Zbl 0088.28505)] has shown that if \(f\) is a meromorphic function such that \(f\) and \(f''\) have only finitely many zeros and poles, then \(f(z)=R(z)e^{P(z)}\), where \(R(z)\) is a rational function and \(P(z)\) is a polynomial, and that of these the only functions for which \(f\) and \(f''\) have no zeros are \(e^{az+b}\) and \((az + b)^{-n}\), where \(n\) is a positive integer and \(a\), \(b\) are constants. Hayman also noted that if \(f\) has no zeros, then \(f=1 / g\) where \(g\) is an entire function, and \[ f^{\prime \prime}=\frac{2\left(g^{\prime}\right)^{2}-g g^{\prime \prime}}{g^{3}}. \] This leads to the question of when can the differential polynomial \(2\left(g^{\prime}\right)^{2}-g g^{\prime \prime}\) have no zeros if \(g\) is entire? In the paper under review the authors give explicit forms of all the entire solutions of \[ f f^{\prime \prime}-a(z)\left(f^{\prime}\right)^{2}=b(z) e^{2 c(z)}, \] where \(a(z)\), \(b(z)\), \(c(z)\) are polynomials such that \(b(z)\not\equiv 0\) and \(c(z)\) is non-constant. The paper is concluded with observations and open questions on certain binomial differential equations related to the equation above.