A new characterisation of the Eremenko-Lyubich class (Q464285)

Let \(f\) be a transcendental entire function \(f\). The Eremenko-Lyubich class \(\mathcal{B}\) introduced in [\textit{A. Eremenko} and \textit{M. Lyubich}, Ann. Inst. Fourier 42, No. 4, 989--1020 (1992; Zbl 0735.58031)] consists of the transcendental entire functions whose set of singular values is bounded. Let \(D_R=\{ z: |f(z)|>R\}\), for \(R>0\). Define \[ \eta _f=\lim_{R\to\infty} \inf _{z\in D_R} \bigg| \frac{zf'(z)}{f(z)} \bigg|. \] It follows from the properties of \(\mathcal{B}\) that \(f\in \mathcal{B}\) implies \(\eta_f=\infty\). The author proves the converse. Theorem 1.1. Suppose that \(f\) is a transcendental entire function. Then either \(\eta_f=\infty\) and \(f\in \mathcal{B}\), or \(\eta_f=0\) and \(f\not \in \mathcal{B}\). The proof of Theorem 1.1 requries a detailed analysis of singularities of the inverse function. The following theorem complements Theorem 5 in [\textit{W. Bergweiler} and \textit{A. Eremenko}, Ill. J. Math. 52, No. 1, 243--259 (2008; Zbl 1171.30009)]. Theorem 1.2. Suppose that \(f\) is a transcendental entire function with a direct non-logarithmic singularity with projection \(a\in \hat \mathbb{C}\). Then at least one of the following holds: {\parindent=6mm\begin{itemize}\item[(i)] \(a\) is the limit of critical values of \(f\); \item [(ii)] every neighbourhood of this singularity contains a neighbourhood of another transcendental singularity of \(f^{-1}\) that is either direct or logarithmic, and whose projection is different from \(a\). \end{itemize}}