Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/paper-1/11/c/solution

A constant real part means , so its level sets are the concentric circles
Their radii are strictly positive. The real part is independent of the logarithm's branch, so there is no branch ambiguity in these circles.
For , the equation is . If , complete the square to obtain
These circles have centres on the real axis and are tangent to the imaginary axis at the excluded origin. Positive puts the circle to the right, negative to the left. The separate case gives the punctured imaginary axis . The sketch uses an open marker at the origin to emphasize that is never defined there.
Figure 1.
Constant real-part contours of the complex logarithm and reciprocal
. Details.

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