Uniqueness of entire functions and their derivatives (Q934549)

Let \(f\) be a non-constant entire function; let the function \(\alpha\) satisfy the condition \(T (r, \alpha) = S (r, f),\) where \(T\) and \(S\) are the standard notions of the Nevanlinna theory. Suppose that \[ L(f) = a_n f^{(n)} + a_{n-1} f^{(n-1)} + \dots + a_0 f, n \geq 2, \] where \(a_0, a_1, \dots, a_n \neq 0\) are complex constants. The authors have proved the following two results. Theorem 1.1. If \( a_0 \neq 0\) and \(f - \alpha, f' - \alpha, L (f) - \alpha\) have the same zeros, counting multiplicity, then either (i) \(f (z) = b e^z,\) where \(b \neq 0\) is a constant, or (ii) \[ f (z) = b e^{c z} - \frac{a (1 - c)}{c}, \] where a constant \(b \neq 0, \alpha (z)\) reduces to \(a\) and \( c \neq 0\) such that \(a_0 + \sum_{j=1}^n a_j c^{j-1} = 1.\) Theorem 1.2. Let \(\alpha (z) = d e^z, d \neq 0.\) If \( a_0 = 0\) and \(f - \alpha, f' - \alpha, L (f) - \alpha\) have the same zeros, counting multiplicity, then \(\sum_{j=1}^n a_j = 1\) and \[ f (z) = a \exp {b e^{cz}} + d e^z, \] where \(a,b,c\) are non-zero constants.