Weighted sharing of three values by meromorphic functions (Q933221)

The purpose of this paper is to show that in several recent results, in particular in the papers by \textit{H. Yi} and \textit{W. Lü} [Proc. Japan Acad., Ser. A 78, No.~7, 152--156 (2002; Zbl 1026.30033)] and by \textit{Q. C. Zhang} [Indian J. Pure Appl. Math. 30, No.~7, 667--682 (1999; Zbl 0934.30025)], uniqueness type results for meromorphic functions sharing three extended complex values may be improved by replacing the assumption of sharing these values CM (i.e. counting multiplicity) with the assumption of weighted sharing. To recall this notion, see e.g. [Nagoya Math. J. 161, 193--206 (2001; Zbl 0981.30023)], denote by \(E_{k}(a;f)\) the set of all \(a\)-points of \(f\), where \(k\) is a given nonnegative integer of infinity, and where an \(a\)-point of multiplicity \(m\) is counted \(\min (m,k+1)\) times. If now \(E_{k}(a;f)=E_{k}(a;g)\), then \(f,g\) share the value \(a\) with weight \(k\), denoted as sharing \((a,k)\). As examples of the results proved in this paper, we give: {\parindent=7mm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)] Let \(f,g\) be two nonconstant meromorphic functions sharing \((0,1),(1,m),(\infty ,k)\) such that \((m-1)(mk-1)>(1+m)^{2}\). If \(N(r)\neq S(r)\), where \(N(r)\) counts zeros of \(f-g\) which are not zeros of \(f(f-1)\) and of \(1/f\), then either (i) \(f\) is a bilinear transformation of \(g\) with \(N(r)=T(r,f)+S(r)=T(r,g)+S(r)\), or (ii) \(f\) is not a bilinear transformation of \(g\) with \(T(r,f)=T(r,g)+S(r)\) and \(2N(r)\leq T(r,f)+S(r)\). \item[(2)] Let \(f,g\) be two nonconstant meromorphic functions sharing \((0,1),(1,m),(\infty ,k)\) such that \((m-1)(mk-1)>(1+m)^{2}\). If now \(N(r,0;f'| \leq 1)+N(r,0;g'| \leq 1)\leq\lambda (T(r,f)+T(r,g))+S(r)\) for some \(\lambda\), \(0<\lambda<1/2\), then \(f\) is a bilinear transformation of \(g\). \end{itemize}} The proofs in this paper need a careful analysis of the weighted sharing assumption above.