Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2007 / ib / Paper 4 / 4H (Complex Analysis)

The argument principle states that if $h$ is meromorphic on a neighbourhood of a positively oriented simple closed contour and its interior, with neither zeros nor poles on the contour, thenwhere $N$ and $P$ count its interior zeros and poles with multiplicity. This integer is also the winding number of $h(\gamma )$ about zero.

Fix $z_0\in U$. Injectivity prevents $f$ from being constant on a neighbourhood of $z_0$, so its Taylor expansion has the formChoose a small closed disk $D\subset U$, centred at $z_0$, such that $h$ and $mh+(z-z_0)h^{\prime }$ are nonzero throughout $D$. Then $f-f(z_0)$ has its sole zero at $z_0$ in $D$, of multiplicity $m$, while $f^{\prime }$ has no zero in $D\setminus \{z_0\}$. On its boundary let $\delta =\min |f-f(z_0)|>0$.

Choose $0<|w|<\delta$. For every $0\le t\le 1$, the holomorphic function $f-f(z_0)-tw$ is nonzero on $\partial D$. By the argument principle, its number of zeros is an integer given by a contour integral varying continuously with $t$, hence remains $m$. At $t=1$ none of these zeros is $z_0$, so their derivatives are nonzero and they are simple zeros. Thus there are $m$ distinct points taking the value $f(z_0)+w$. Injectivity forces $m=1$, proving $f^{\prime }(z_0)\ne 0$ everywhere in $U$.