Gol'dberg's constants (Q351291)

The authors study the following extremal problems introduced by A. A. Gol'dberg. Let \(F_0\) denote the set of holomorphic functions \(f\) defined in the rings \(\{z: \rho(f)<|z|<1\}\), that omit 0 and 1 and so that the indices of the curve \(f(\{|z|=\sqrt{\rho(f)}\})\) with respect to 0 and 1 are distinct non-zero numbers. If \(\mathbb U\) denotes the unit disc, denote by \(F_1\) the class of functions in \(F_0\) that extend to meromorphic functions in \(U\), and by \(F_2, F_3\), and \(F_4\) the classes of functions in \(F_1\) that are holomorphic, rational, and polynomial in \(U\), respectively. If \(f\) is in \(F_i,\;i=1, 2, 3, 4\), define \(\rho(f)=\sup\{|z|: f(z)\in\{0,1,\infty\}\}\). Gol'dberg's constants are defined as \[ A_j=\inf\big\{\rho(f): f\in F_j\big\},\quad j=0,1,2,3,4. \] Gol'dberg proved that \(0<A_0=A_1=A_3<A_2=A_4\) and showed that \(A_0\) and \(A_2\) are attained, but no extremal functions for \(A_1, A_3\), or \(A_4\) exist. He also provided certain estimates for \(A_0\) and \(A_2\). In the paper under review, in particular, the authors give the exact value for \(A_0\) and improve the upper and lower estimates for \(A_2\). They show that \[ A_0=\exp\left(-\frac{\pi^2}{\log(3+2\sqrt{2})}\right) \] and \[ \left(1+\sqrt{1-16A_0^6}\right)^{2/3}A_0\leq A_2\leq\mu\equiv 0.0252896. \] The extremal problems under consideration are related to finding the smallest hyperbolic lengths of non-peripheral curves in the plane punctured at 0 and 1.