Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/ib/paper-3/13f/solution

For a closed piecewise smooth path avoiding , its winding number is
A meromorphic function has a zero of order at when
with holomorphic; it has a pole of order at when extends holomorphically and nonvanishingly there.
The argument principle states that, if has no zero or pole on ,
For a positively oriented simple contour this is the number of enclosed zeros minus poles, counted with multiplicity. It follows from the residue theorem because the residue of at a zero of order is , while at a pole of order it is .
Let
On the imaginary axis,
Thus always lies in the open right half-plane, has no zero there, and its continuous argument has net change zero as the imaginary-axis part of a large right-half-disc contour is traversed. On the right semicircle, uniformly, so the argument change tends to that of , namely . The argument principle therefore gives
roots in the open right half-plane, counted with multiplicity.

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