No label defined (Q4035970)

The author considers the relation between the valences of two functions and their arithmetic mean. Let \(f(z)\) and \(g(z)\) belong to \(A\), the class of functions regular in \(| z|<1\) with normalization \(f(0)=0\) and \(f'(0)=1\). Let \(F(z)=1/2[f(z)+g(z)]\). The following problem is investigated in this paper: Positive integers \(k\), \(m\) and \(n\) are prescribed, is it possible to find functions, \(f,g\), and \(F\) so that the valence in \(E\) of \(f\) is \(k\), of \(g\) is \(m\) and that of \(F\) is \(n\). The case \(k=m=1\), \(n=\infty\) was solved by the author in 1968. The author first establishes two theorems for the case \(k=m\) and shows that for \(n=1\) a solution exists for all positive integers \(k\). For arbitrary \(n\geq 2\) there exists a solution for \(k\geq 2\). The case \(k=m=1\) and \(n\) finite remains unsettled. For the unsymmetric case \(k=m\), the author shows that a solution exists for each pair of positive integers \(k\) and \(m\) in the case that \(n=\infty\).