In mathematics, a function defined on a region of the complex plane is said to be of bounded type if it is equal tothe ratio of two analytic functionsbounded in that region. But more generally, a function is of bounded type in a region if and only if is analytic on and has a harmonic majorant on where. Being the ratio of two bounded analytic functions is a sufficient condition for a function to be of bounded type, and if is simply connected the condition is also necessary. The class of all such on is commonly denoted and is sometimes called the Nevanlinna class for. The Nevanlinna class includes all the Hardy classes. Functions of bounded type are not necessarily bounded, nor do they have a property called "type" which is bounded. The reason for the name is probably that when defined on a disc, the Nevanlinna characteristic is bounded. Clearly, if a function is the ratio of two bounded functions, then it can be expressed as the ratio of two functions which are bounded by 1: The logarithms of and of are non-negative in the region, so The latter is the real part of an analytic function and is therefore harmonic, showing that has a harmonic majorant on Ω. For a given region, sums, differences, and products of functions of bounded type are of bounded type, as is the quotient of two such functions as long as the denominator is not identically zero.
Examples
s are of bounded type in any bounded region. They are also of bounded type in the upper half-plane, because a polynomial of degree n can be expressed as a ratio of two analytic functions bounded in the UHP: with The inverse of a polynomial is also of bounded type in a region, as is any rational function. The function is of bounded type in the UHP if and only if a is real. If a is positive the function itself is bounded in the UHP, and if a is negative then the function equals 1/Q with. Sine and cosine are of bounded type in the UHP. Indeed, with both of which are bounded in the UHP. All of the above examples are of bounded type in the lower half-plane as well, using different P and Q functions. But the region mentioned in the definition of the term "bounded type" cannot be the whole complex plane unless the function is constant because one must use the same P and Q over the whole region, and the only entire functions which are bounded are constants, by Liouville's theorem. Another example in the upper half-plane is a "Nevanlinna function", that is, an analytic function that maps the UHP to the closed UHP. If f is of this type, then where P and Q are the bounded functions:
Properties
For a given region, the sum, product, or quotient of two functions of bounded type is also of bounded type. The set of functions of bounded type is an algebra over the complex numbers and is in fact a field. Any function of bounded type in the upper half-plane can be expressed as a Blaschke product multiplying the quotient where and are bounded by 1 and have no zeros in the UHP. One can then express this quotient as where and are analytic functions having non-negative real part in the UHP. Each of these in turn can be expressed by a Poisson representation : where c and d are imaginary constants, p and q are non-negative real constants, and μ and ν are non-decreasing functions of a real variable. The difference q−p has been given the name "mean type" by Louis de Branges and describes the growth or decay of the function along the imaginary axis: The mean type in the upper half-plane is the limit of a weighted average of the logarithm of the function's absolute valuedivided by distance from zero, normalized in such a way that the value for is 1: If an entire function is of bounded type in both the upper and the lower half-plane then it is of exponential type equal to the higher of the two respective "mean types". An entire function of order greater than 1 cannot be of bounded type in any half-plane. We may thus produce a function of bounded type by using an appropriate exponential of z and exponentials of arbitrary Nevanlinna functions multiplied byi, for example: Concerning the examples given above, the mean type of polynomials or their inverses is zero. The mean type of in the upper half-plane is −a, while in the lower half-plane it is a. The mean type of in both half-planes is 1. Functions of bounded type in the upper half-plane with non-positive mean type and having a continuous, square-integrableextension to the real axis have the interesting property that the integral equals if z is in the upper half-plane and zero ifz is in the lower half-plane. This may be termed the Cauchy formula for the upper half-plane.
