In mathematics, the value distribution theory of holomorphic functions is a division of mathematical analysis. It tries to get quantitative measures of the number of times a function f(z) assumes a value a, as z grows in size, refining the Picard theorem on behaviour close to an essential singularity. The theory exists for analytic functions (and meromorphic functions) of one complex variable z, or of several complex variables.
In the case of one variable the term Nevanlinna theory, after Rolf Nevanlinna, is also common. The now-classical theory received renewed interest, when Paul Vojta suggested some analogies with the problem of integral solutions to Diophantine equations. These turned out to involve some close parallels, and to lead to fresh points of view on the Mordell conjecture and related questions.
Famous quotes containing the words distribution, theory and/or functions:
“The question for the country now is how to secure a more equal distribution of property among the people. There can be no republican institutions with vast masses of property permanently in a few hands, and large masses of voters without property.... Let no man get by inheritance, or by will, more than will produce at four per cent interest an income ... of fifteen thousand dollars] per year, or an estate of five hundred thousand dollars.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“There could be no fairer destiny for any physical theory than that it should point the way to a more comprehensive theory in which it lives on as a limiting case.”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
“Mark the babe
Not long accustomed to this breathing world;
One that hath barely learned to shape a smile,
Though yet irrational of soul, to grasp
With tiny finger—to let fall a tear;
And, as the heavy cloud of sleep dissolves,
To stretch his limbs, bemocking, as might seem,
The outward functions of intelligent man.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)