On a definition of logarithm of quaternionic functions (Q6060964)

The basic idea of slice monogenicity is to use a complex structure inside the quaternions, i.e., the quaternions \(\mathbb{H}\) are considered as \(\mathbb{R} + I\mathbb{R},\) where \(I\) is a pure imaginary unit quaternion (or a vector in \(S^2\)). Hence, the quaternions are decomposed into isomorphic slices to the complex plane. Then a slice regular quaternion-valued function is slice-monogenic if and only if this function is regular in each slice, i.e., \(\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{\partial}{\partial x} + I \frac{\partial}{\partial y} \right) f(x+yI) = 0.\) For a slice-regular quaternionic function \(f,\) the classical exponential function \(\exp f \) is generally not slice-regular. An alternative definition of an exponential function is the \(*\)-exponential \(\exp_*.\) If \(f\) is a slice-regular function, then \(\exp_*f\) is also a slice-regular function. The study of a \(*\)-logarithm \(\log_*f\) of a slice-regular function \(f\) is performed in this paper. The main result shows that such a \(\log_*f\) depends only on the structure of the zero set of the vectorial part \(f_v\) of the slice-regular function \(f= f_0 + f_v,\) besides the topology of its domain of definition. Every slice-regular nonvanishing function has a \(*\)-logarithm. An example of a nonvanishing slice-regular function on a ball that does not admit a \(*\)-logarithm on that ball is given at the end.