On the complex oscillation of meromorphic solutions of second order linear differential equations in the unit disc (Q601325)

This paper is devoted to considering the oscillation theory of \[ f''+A(z)f=0 \] in the unit disc \(D\), provided that \(A(z)\) is meromorphic and of finite iterated order \[ \sigma_{n}(A):=\limsup_{r\rightarrow 1-}\frac{\log_{n}T(r,A)}{-\log (1-r)} \] in \(D\). Here, \(\log_{n}\) means the usual iterated logarithm starting from \(\log_{0}t=t\). The iterated exponent of convergence for zeros is defined similarly by using \(N(r,1/A)\) instead of \(T(r,A)\). The case when \(A(z)\) is analytic in \(D\), meaning that all solutions are analytic as well, has been treated by \textit{T.-B. Cao} and \textit{H.-X. Yi} [Math. Nachr. 282, No.~6, 820--831 (2009; Zbl 1193.34174)]. To obtain the present results in the meromorphic case, ideas and reasoning from [\textit{S. B. Bank} and \textit{I. Laine}, Comment. Math. Helv. 58, 656--677 (1983; Zbl 0532.34008)] are being effectively applied. A key notion to describe the results in this paper is the finiteness degree \(i(f)\) of \(f\), see [\textit{L. Kinnunen}, Southeast Asian Bull. Math. 22, No.~4, 385--405 (1998; Zbl 0934.34076)], where this notion had been introduced in the whole plane case. In the unit disc setting, \(i(f)=0\), if \(D(f):=\limsup_{r\rightarrow 1-}\frac{T(r,f)}{\log 1/(1-r)}<\infty\), while if \(D(f)=\infty\) whenever \(\sigma_{n}(f)=\infty\) for all \(n\), and \(i(f)=\min\{ n | \sigma_{n}(f)<\infty\}\) otherwise. Examples obtained in the present paper are: (1) if \(0<i(A)=n<\infty\) and \(\overline{\lambda}_{n}(A)<\sigma_{n}(A)\), then \(\sigma_{n}(A)\leq\max (\overline{\lambda}_{n}(f),\overline{\lambda}_{n}(1/f))\) for all non-trivial solutions \(f\) of \(f''+A(z)f=0\); (2) if, in addition, \(\delta (\infty ,A)>0\), and \(f_{1},f_{2}\) are linearly independent solutions, then \(\max (\overline{\lambda}_{n+1}(f_{1}),\overline{\lambda}_{n}(f_{2}))=\overline{\lambda}_{n+1}(E)\leq\sigma_{n+1}(f_{1})=\sigma_{n+1}(f_{2})\), here \(E=f_{1}f_{2}\).