Value distribution of differences of meromorphic functions (Q5894148)

Let \(f\) be a function meromorphic and transcendental in the complex plane, and define the forward differences \(\Delta^{n}f\) by \[ \Delta f(z) = \Delta^{1} f(z) = f(z+1) - f(z) \;, \] \[ \Delta^{n+1}f(z) = \Delta^{n}f(z+1) - \Delta^{n}f(z), \;\;\;\;\;1 \leq n < \infty \;. \] This work is an extension of work by W. Bergweiler and the author [Math. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 142, 133--147 (2007; Zbl 1114.30028)]. Specifically, two new results are proved here. Theorem 1.4. Let \(f\) be of order \(\rho < 1\), let \(n\) be a positive integer, and let \(G_{n}(z) = (\Delta^{n}f(z))/f(z)\) be transcendental. Then \noindent (i) if \(G_{n}\) has lower order \(\mu < \alpha < 1/2\) and \(\delta(a,f)\) denotes the deficiency of the value \(a\) for the function \(f\), then \[ \text{either } \;\;\delta(0, G_{n}) \leq 1 - \cos{(\pi \alpha)} \;\;\;\;\text{ or } \;\;\;\;\delta(\infty,f) \leq \frac {\mu} {\alpha}; \] (ii) if \(\rho = 1/2\), then either \(G_{n}\) has infinitely many zeros or \(\delta(\infty,f) < 1\); \noindent (iii) there exists a small positive constant \(\delta_{0}\) such that if \(f\) is an entire function and \(\rho < 1/2 + \delta_{0}\) then \(G_{n}\) has infinitely many zeros. Theorem 1.7. If \(f\) has order less than \(1/6\) and if \[ G(z) = G_{1}(z) = \frac {\Delta f(z)} {f(z)} = \frac {f(z+1) - f(z)} {f(z)} \;, \] then at least one of \(G\) and \(\Delta f\) has infinitely many zeros. The proofs of these results involve a number of technical lemmas.