Value sharing by an entire function with its derivatives (Q300651)

The authors study the situation when an entire function \(f\) shares a nonzero finite value with three consecutive derivatives \(f^{(n)}\), \(f^{(n+1)}\) and \(f^{(n+2)}\) for \(n\geq 1\). They obtain the following result: Let \(f\) be a non-constant entire function, \(n\geq 1\) an integer, and let \(a, b\) be two nonzero finite complex numbers. Further, suppose that \[ A=\overline{E}(a;f)\setminus\overline{E}(b;f^{(n)})\quad\text{and}\quad B=\overline{E}(b;f^{(n)})\setminus\Big(\overline{E}(a;f^{(n+1)})\cap\overline{E}(a;f^{(n+2)})\Big). \] If \[ N_{A}(r,a;f)+N_{B}(r,b;f^{(n)})+\overline{N}_{(2}(r,a;f)=S(r,f), \] then \(a=b\) and either \(f=\alpha e^{z}\) or \(f=a+\alpha e^{z}\), where \(\alpha\) (\(\not=0\)) is a constant.