Linear differential equations with entire coefficients of \([p,q]\)-order in the complex plane (Q2637931)

Let \(\log _j r\) be the \(j\)-th iteration of \(\log r\), \(j\in \mathbb{N} \). If \(f\) is a transcendental entire function, the \([p,q]\)-order of \(f\) is defined by \[ \sigma_{[p,q]}(f)=\varlimsup _{r\to\infty} \frac {\log _pT(r,f)}{ \log _q r}, \] where \(T(r,f)\) is the Nevanlinna characteristic of \(f\). The authors investigate the growth and zero distribution of solutions of the linear differential equation \[ f^{(k)}+ A_{k-1}(z)f^{(k-1)}+\dots +A_{0}(z)f=0, \tag{1} \] and its non-homogeneous counterpart, where \(A_j\), \(j\in \{0, \dots, k-1\}\) are entire. Using the notion of \([p,q]\)-order, the growth of solutions, its distribution of zeros are described in terms of the growth of the coefficients. Since this growth scale is more flexible than that based on the notion of iterated orders (\(q=1\), \(p\in \mathbb{N}\)), the obtained results improve earlier results by \textit{L. Kinnunen} [Southeast Asian Bull. Math. 22, No.~4, 385--405 (1998; Zbl 0934.34076)], \textit{L. Bernal} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 101, 317--322 (1987; Zbl 0652.34008)], and others in the case when the solutions are of infinite order. The following result is typical. Theorem 2.4. Let \(A_0\), \(A_1\), \dots, \(A_{k-1}\) be entire functions, and let \(s\in \{0, \dots, k-1\}\) be the largest index for which \(\sigma_{[p,q]}(A_s)=\max_{0\leq j\leq k-1}\{\sigma_{[p,q]}(A_j)\}\), then there are at least \(k-s\) linearly independent solutions \(f(z)\) of (1) such that \(\sigma_{[p+1,q]}(f)=\sigma_{[p,q]}(A_s) \). Moreover, all solutions of (1) satisfy \(\sigma_{[p+1,q]}(f)\leq \sigma\) if and only if \(\sigma_{[p,q]}(A_j)\leq \sigma\) for all \(j\in \{0,1, \dots, k-1\}\).