Werteverhalten holomorpher Funktionen auf Überlagerungen und zahlentheoretische Analogien II (Q4949679)

The author explains that, much as in Part I [Math. Ann. 299, 127-153 (1994; Zbl 0805.11077)], the present work is based on a series of pairs of lemmata dealing on the one hand with certain algebraic expressions lying in a finite set and on the other hand with twice as many similar expressions in the unit group of some ring for which a sum of units `rarely' vanishes. The point is that is that in number fields the \(S\)-unit theorem guarantees exactly that property, as does the theorem of Picard-Borel in appropriate function-theoretic contexts. Function-theoretic consequences include so-called \(4\)-values theorems (very loosely, two functions coincide exactly when they coincide appropriately at four points). In the number-theoretic case there are applications of the following genre. Under plainly necessary restrictions on given polynomials \(P_1\) and \(P_2\) in \(\mathbb Q[X]\) the author gives arithmetic conditions on \(t\) integral, or rational, so that one may declare bounds on the degree of divisors of \(P_1+tP_2\) or demonstrate its irreducibility. There are similar such results for \(P(x,y)-t\) where \(P\) is a homogeneous polynomial. This is a detailed and dense paper for which the foregoing remarks serve at best to hint at the content.