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
). Consider the function
.
This function has the following Laurent series about the essential singular point at
.