No label defined (Q4388700)

Let \(f\) be meromorphic and nonconstant in the plane and let \(\overline n_k (r,a)\) denote the number of distinct roots of \(f(z)=a\) of multiplicity at most \(k\) in the closed disc \(D(0,r)\). In J. Indian Math. Soc., N. Ser. 20, 315-327 (1956; Zbl 0079.29602), \textit{S. M. Shah} studied the asymptotic behaviour of \(\overline n_k (r,a) \log r/T(r,f)\), \(k=1,2\), where \(T\) denotes the Nevanlinna characteristic of \(f\). The author's main result, which is a considerable improvement on that of Shah is as follows. For each positive integer \(k\) and \(\arg q(\geq 2)\) distinct \(a_j\) in \(\widehat \mathbb{C}\) we have \[ \sum^q_{j=1} \bigl\{1- \lim\sup \overline n_k (r,a_j) \log r/T(r,f) \bigr\}\leq 2\left (1+{1 \over k} \right). \] For entire functions, if we restrict \(a_j\) to lie in \(\mathbb{C}\) the bound on the right becomes \((1+ {1\over k})\). There are several corollaries.