Fall 2020 - Problem 11

normal families, Urysohn subsequence principle

Let {fn}n\set{f_n}_n be a sequence of analytic functions on a (connected) domain Ω\Omega such that fn(z)1\abs{f_n\p{z}} \leq 1 for all nn and all zΩz \in \Omega. Suppose the sequence {fn(z)}n\set{f_n\p{z}}_n converges for infinitely many zz in a compact subset KK of Ω\Omega. Prove {fn(z)}n\set{f_n\p{z}}_n converges for all zΩz \in \Omega.

Solution.

Since {fn}n\set{f_n}_n is uniformly bounded, it forms a normal family. Thus, it admits a locally uniform convergent subsequence to a holomorphic function ff.

Now suppose {fnk}k\set{f_{n_k}}_k is any subsequence of {fn}n\set{f_n}_n. Then this is still a normal family, so it admits a further subsequence which converges locally uniformly to some holomorphic gg. By assumption, for any z0Kz_0 \in K, we have f(z0)=g(z0)f\p{z_0} = g\p{z_0}, i.e., ff and gg agree at infinitely many points in KK compact, so it must agree on an accumulation point of KK. By uniqueness, we see that f=gf = g on Ω\Omega, so by the Urysohn subsequence principle, fnf_n converges locally uniformly to ff on Ω\Omega. In particular, it converges pointwise, which was what we wanted to show.