Normal families and uniqueness of entire functions and their derivatives (Q5925285)

The authors prove that if \(f\) is a non-constant entire function, if \(k \geq 2\) is a positive integer, and if \(a\) is a non-zero complex number such that both \[ f(z) = a \Rightarrow f'(z) = a \;\quad \text{and} \quad f'(z) = a \Rightarrow f^{(k)}(z) = a, \] then either \(f(z) = C e^{\lambda z} + a\) or \(f(z) = C e^{\lambda z} + a(1 - 1/\lambda)\), where \(C\) and \(\lambda\) are non-zero constants with \(\lambda^{k-1} = 1\). The proof involves a number of technical lemmas, and uses Wiman-Valiron theory, Nevanlinna theory, and some results about normal families. The result improves results due to \textit{G. Jank, E. Mues} and \textit{L. Volkmann} [Complex Var., Theory Appl. 6, 51--71 (1986; Zbl 0603.30037)], \textit{L.-Z. Yang} [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 212, No. 2, 529--536 (1997; Zbl 0877.30016)], and the second author and \textit{L. Zalcman} [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 280, No. 2, 273--283 (2003; Zbl 1030.30025)].