Notes on the Level Curves of a Meromorphic Function

Publication date 23 June 2013

Abstract: The subject of this paper is the bounded level curves of a meromorphic function

f

with domain

G

such that each component of

p a r t i a l G

consists of a level curve of

f

. (A primary example of such a function being a ratio of finite Blaschke products of different degrees, with domain

m a t h b b D

.) We will first prove several facts about a single bounded level curve of a

f

in isolation from the other level curves of

f

. We will then study how the level curves of

f

lie with respect to each other. It is natural to expect that the sets

z : | f (z) | = e p s i l o n

vary continuously as

e p s i l o n

varies. We will make this notion explicit, and use this continuity to prove several results about the bounded level curves of

f

. It is well known that if

z_{0}

is a zero or a pole of

f

, then

f

is conformally equivalent to the function

z m a p s t o z^{k}

(for some

k i n m a t h b b Z

) in a neighborhood of

z_{0}

. We generalize this fact by finding a natural decomposition of

G

into finitely many sub-regions (also bounded by level curves of

f

), on each of which

f

is conformally equivalent to

z m a p s t o z^{k}

(for some

k i n m a t h b b Z

). Also included is a new proof, using level curves, of the Gauss--Lucas theorem that the critical points of a polynomial are contained in the convex hull of the polynomial's zeros.

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