Bloch's principle (Q2497130)

The notion of normal family, introduced by P. Montel a century ago in 1907, has been until recently not only a powerful tool, but also an important topic in complex analysis, especially in complex dynamics. By Bloch's Principle in the title of the paper, the author means the heuristic principle which says that a family of functions meromorphic(holomorphic) in a domain possessing a certain property is likely to be normal if there is no non-constant function meromorphic(holomorphic) in the entire plane satisfying that property. According to the author, although this heuristic principle is usually attributed to André Bloch, the first explicit formulation of the heuristic principle is due to [\textit{G. Valiron}, Familles normales et quasi-normales de fonctions méromorphes, Mémorial des Sciences Math. 38, Gauthier-Villars, Paris, (1929; JFM 55.0762.02)] who also mentioned [\textit{Bloch}, Sur les valeurs exceptionelles des fontions Méromorphes et de leurs dérivées, Hermann \& Cie, Paris, (1929)] in this context. In this survey paper the author summarizes some of results that have been obtained in connection with Bloch's Principle. The survey topics are mainly focused on exceptional values of derivatives, fixed points and periodic points of iterates. The survey provides 123 references that cover the entire period of the last century. Also, the survey briefly covers topics such as functions sharing values, gap series, holomorphic curves, and quasiregular maps.