In complex analysis, a branch of mathematics, the Casorati–Weierstrass theorem describes the remarkable behavior of meromorphic functions near essential singularities. It is named for Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass and Felice Casorati.
Formal statement of the theorem
Start with some open subset
in the complex plane containing the number
, and a function
that is holomorphic on
, but has an essential singularity at
. The Casorati–Weierstrass theorem then states that
if
is any neighborhood of
contained in
, then
is dense in
.
This can also be stated as follows:
for any
and any complex number
, there exists a complex number
in
with
and
.
Or in still more descriptive terms:
comes arbitrarily close to any complex value in every neighbourhood of
.
This form of the theorem also applies if
is only meromorphic. The theorem is considerably strengthened by Picard’s great theorem, which states, in the notation above, that
assumes every complex value, with one possible exception, infinitely often on
.
Examples
The function
has an essential singularity at
, but the function
does not (it has a pole at 0). Consider the function

This function has the following Laurent series about the essential singular point at
:
Because
exists for all points
we know that
is analytic in the neighborhood of
. Hence it is an isolated singularity, as well as being and essential singularity. Using a change of variable to polar coordinates
our function,
becomes:
Taking the absolute value of both sides:
Thus, for values of
such that
, we have
as
, and for
,
as
.
Consider what happens, for example when
takes values on a circle of diameter
tangent to the imaginary axis. This circle is given by
. Then,
and
Thus,
may take any positive value other than zero by the appropriate choice of
. As
on the circle,
with
fixed. So this part of the equation:
takes on all values on the unit circle infinitely often. Hence
takes on all the value of every number in the complex plane except for zero infinitely often.
Proof of the theorem
A short proof of the theorem is as follows: Take as given that function
is meromorphic on some punctured neighborhood
, and that
is an essential singularity. Assume by way of contradiction that some value
exists that the function can never get close to; that is: assume that there is some complex value
and some
such that
for all
in
at which
is defined.
Then the new function:

must be holomorphic on
, with zeroes at the poles of
, and bounded by
. It can therefore be analytically continued (or continuously extended, or holomorphically extended) to all of
by Riemann’s analytic continuation theorem. So the original function can be expressed in terms of
:
for all arguments
in
. Consider the two possible cases for
If the limit is 0, then
has a pole at
. If the limit is not 0, then
is a removable singularity of
. Both possibilities contradict the assumption that the the point
is an essential singularity of the function
. Hence the assumption is false and the theorem holds.