Differentially cyclic functions (Q2640004)

The authors study the class of differentially algebraic (DA) functions u(z), where u(z) satisfies a non-trivial algebraic differential equation (ADE), that is an equation of the form \(P(z,y)=P[z,y(z),y'(z),...,y^{(n)}(z)]=0,\) where P is a polynomial with complex coefficients in its \((n+2)\) variables. They study the class of DA functions they call differentially cyclic, which means that \(u(\omega^ kz)\) satisfies every ADE satisfied by u, where \(\omega\) is a primitive rth root of unity and r is a given positive integer, \(r\geq 2\) and \(k=1,2,...,r-1\). In particular if \(r=2\), then \(\omega =-1\), and u is said to be differentially even. For example, sin z is an example of a differentially odd function since sin(-z) satisfies every ADE satisfied by sin z. In section 2 of the paper the authors prove a set of equivalent conditions for u to be differentially cyclic, while in section 3 they show that neither the sum nor the product of two differentially even entire functions need be differentially even which is a curious result. The authors apply a deep theorem of Steinmetz (see Appendix S at the end of the paper) to prove the fact that if f is any DA entire function and g is a differentially cyclic entire function, then \(f\circ g\) is differentially cyclic. The key difference in this paper is that the authors consider functions u which are differentially invariant with respect to the finite cyclic group \(G=\{z\to z,z\to \omega z,...,z\to \omega^{r-1}z\}\).