In the integral defining the Beta function, put and then . Symmetry gives
This proves the identity for . Both sides extend by analytic continuation to the same meromorphic function, equivalently by the beta-gamma identity and the Gamma duplication formula. The identity holds meromorphically for every ; both sides are finite for and have matching poles at the excluded points.
If , that cocycle is a Čech coboundary: there are with
Set on and on . These formulas agree on overlaps, so the sheaf gluing axiom gives a global meromorphic function. Moreover is holomorphic near . Thus solves the Mittag-Leffler problem on a Riemann surface with precisely the prescribed principal parts.
The exact sequence
induces a long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology. Under and , its connecting homomorphism is the divisor-to-Picard map . Exactness identifies its kernel with divisors of global nonzero meromorphic functions, namely principal divisors:
For , the absolutely convergent Dirichlet series
defines the Riemann zeta function. To continue it, use partial summation in Stieltjes form:
Since , the final integral converges locally uniformly for and is holomorphic there. The displayed expression is consequently a meromorphic function on that half-plane, with its only pole at . Since has residue one there, so does . Agreement in makes this continuation unique by the identity theorem.
Consider the meromorphic function
Close the contour with a large semicircle in the upper half-plane, indenting above the three real pole . The large-arc integral vanishes by Jordan's lemma, while the upper-half-plane indentation rule gives
The three residue are
Their sum is , so the residue theorem yields
The real part of the integrand is an odd function, so its full-line principal value is zero. Its imaginary part,
is an even function. Taking imaginary parts and halving the full-line integral therefore gives
The sum of two meromorphic functions has no poles away from the union of their pole sets, and at each its pole order is at most the larger of the two orders, hence at most . Scalar multiplication cannot increase a pole order. The zero function belongs to the set, so is a complex vector space.
An irreducible complex analytic hypersurface in a complex manifold is a closed irreducible analytic subset of pure complex codimension one. A local defining function of a complex analytic hypersurface at is a holomorphic function on a neighbourhood such that
The necessary local algebra is that the stalk is a regular local ring, hence a unique factorization domain, and that the local branches of a hypersurface germ determine finitely many height-one prime ideals. Each is principal; the product of their generators gives , and removing repeated factors makes it reduced. This also covers a globally irreducible hypersurface that has several local branches at a singular point.
A divisor on a complex manifold is a locally finite formal sum of irreducible analytic hypersurfaces with integer coefficients. On a sufficiently small , local defining functions give a meromorphic equation for . The quotients are nowhere-zero holomorphic functions. Gluing frames by
produces the holomorphic line bundle associated to a divisor , and gives its canonical meromorphic section with divisor .
The Euler sequence on complex projective space
implies . Taking the dual determinant yields the canonical bundle of complex projective space
where is a hyperplane divisor.
The hypotheses on the homogeneous polynomial say that
is a smooth projective hypersurface of degree , so its divisor line bundle is . The adjunction formula gives
This is the canonical bundle of a smooth projective hypersurface.
Now fix an isomorphism and regard and as holomorphic sections of the same holomorphic line bundle. They have no common zero because . Their homogeneous coordinates therefore define a well-defined holomorphic map
In a local frame, the quotient
is a meromorphic function with divisor . Thus and , both with multiplicity one. The degree of a holomorphic map is therefore one. A nonconstant degree-one holomorphic map between compact connected Riemann surfaces is a biholomorphism, so the displayed map is biholomorphic.
A modular function of weight and level is a meromorphic function satisfying
for every , and having a meromorphic Fourier expansion at the cusp infinity. Equivalently, for the slash operator for modular forms.
A modular form is a modular function that is holomorphic on and holomorphic at infinity. Its Fourier expansion therefore has the form
Since , a nonzero level-one form must have even weight.
The inverse is nonconstant; locally at zero,
If the assumed meromorphic function had no poles, it would be entire. It is bounded on the compact closure of a fundamental parallelogram, and its two periods then make it bounded throughout the complex plane. The Liouville theorem would force it to be constant, a contradiction. Therefore has at least one pole, as stated by the general result that a nonconstant elliptic function has a pole.
Choose holomorphic coordinates centered at . Locally, the blowup of a complex manifold at a point is
with ; away from this is an isomorphism, so it glues to . The exceptional divisor is .
The proper transform is the closure of . If , it is isomorphic to . If , the holomorphic implicit function theorem supplies coordinates in which . In the blowup chart with and for , every chart with describes the proper transform by , while the chart does not meet it. These are smooth coordinate hypersurfaces, so is smooth.
For a divisor , the line bundle associated to a divisor consists locally of meromorphic functions such that . Pulling back a local defining function for shows that its divisor is
where is the order of vanishing at of a local defining function for . Therefore
Because is smooth, when and when .
Applying the definition with gives directly
The map sends a section to its local meromorphic coefficient relative to the canonical meromorphic section of ; the divisor inequality is exactly the condition that these coefficients define a holomorphic section, and the inverse construction is local multiplication by that canonical section.
The residue theorem states that the contour integral of a meromorphic function around a positively oriented simple closed contour equals times the sum of its enclosed residues, provided there are no singularities on the contour. The roots of are , . They are simple poles, with residues .
Use the sector contour of angle , running outward along the positive axis and inward along the rotated ray. It encloses only . The large-arc contribution is , hence vanishes. With , the two ray contributions give
Since ,
For the second integral, use on a branch continuous across the sector away from zero, with a small inner arc of radius . Its large arc is and its small arc is , both vanishing for . On the rotated ray, changes by , so the two radial contributions add rather than subtract. The enclosed residue is . Consequently
Both answers are instances of the Mellin integral of a reciprocal binomial. The direct contour argument also tracks the branch needed when is odd.
Figure 1.
A sector encloses exactly one root of the denominator
. An original illustrative contour for , with outward and inward rays, an outer arc, and the inner indentation needed for a fractional power. Only the root at angle is enclosed. Details.
Iterate the Gamma function recurrence to obtain, near for ,
The numerator is holomorphic and equals at . Exactly one denominator factor, , vanishes; the product of the remaining factors there is . Thus there is a simple pole, with Gamma function residue at a nonpositive integer
For the empty product is one. The same recurrence with a sufficiently large shift defines the continuation at every point away from these integers, so no further poles occur. At the poles, the recurrence is an identity of meromorphic functions, rather than an equality of finite values.
Poisson-Jensen formula Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-14
For a meromorphic function with no zero or pole on , set . At source points that are neither zeros nor poles, the displayed identity expresses its logarithmic modulus as the Poisson integral of its boundary values, minus its zero Green potentials plus its pole Green potentials. The Poisson kernel is with normalized angular measure. Subtracting the corresponding logarithmic singularities leaves a harmonic function, so the harmonic Poisson formula proves the identity. At zero it reduces to Jensen's formula.
A meromorphic function on the plane with outside a disc has no poles there and only finitely many poles inside. Subtract their finite principal parts to obtain an entire function. For , Cauchy estimates make every derivative of order above vanish, so the remainder is a polynomial. For the remainder tends to zero at infinity and is zero by Liouville theorem. Adding back the principal parts gives a rational function in either case.
The divisor on a complex manifold of a nonzero global meromorphic function records its zero and pole orders along irreducible analytic hypersurfaces. It is called principal. Its holomorphic line bundle associated to a divisor is trivial: choosing the same global meromorphic function as the local equation on every open set gives identity transition functions. In particular, two hyperplanes in Complex projective space have isomorphic associated bundles, since the quotient of their homogeneous linear equations is a global meromorphic function with their difference as divisor.
Principal part of a meromorphic function Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
At a point of a Riemann surface, the principal part of a meromorphic function is the negative-degree part of its Laurent series in a local coordinate. It is equivalently a germ in the quotient .
The principal part at a pole is the finite sum of negative-degree terms of its Laurent series. Prescribing such parts is the problem solved by the Mittag-Leffler theorem.
A meromorphic function on the unit disc has bounded characteristic if and only if it has this representation. Its pole Blaschke product makes analytic with bounded positive logarithmic means. The least harmonic majorant by expanding disk lifts gives . A harmonic conjugate gives an analytic with , so and are bounded. Conversely the Nevanlinna first main theorem bounds the characteristic of by that of and , hence by a constant.
For a degree- rational function of the Riemann sphere, choose relatively prime homogeneous polynomials of degree . Their joint norm on the unit three-sphere has positive lower and finite upper bounds. Thus is bounded. Averaging over a circle using a nonvanishing entire homogeneous lift of a meromorphic function proves the displayed law for the spherical characteristic. Jensen's formula and show that it also holds for the ordinary Nevanlinna characteristic.
The sheaf assigns to an open subset of a complex manifold its meromorphic functions. Its subsheaf consists of the nonzero meromorphic functions, while consists of the nowhere-zero holomorphic functions.