Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2010 / ii / Paper 3 / 2F (Topics in Analysis)

Take the holomorphic function $f(z)=1/z$ on a neighborhood of the annulus. Every polynomial has integral zero around the unit circle by the Cauchy integral theorem, while ${\int }_{|z|=1}{z}^{-1}dz=2\pi i$. Uniform convergence on the annulus would imply convergence of these contour integrals, since their difference is bounded by $2\pi$ times the uniform error. Thus uniform polynomial approximation on the full annulus need not exist.

Choose the argument in $(0,2\pi )$ on the slit annulus and letThese compact sets increase to the slit annulus, and each has connected complement: the omitted angular corridor joins the inner disk to the outside of the outer disk. The polynomial Runge theorem says that a function holomorphic near a compact set with connected complement can be approximated uniformly there by polynomials. Choose $p_j$ with ${\sup }_{K_j}|p_j-f|<1/j$. Every compact subset $K$ of the slit annulus has positive distance from the removed positive ray, so $K\subseteq K_j$ for all sufficiently large $j$. Hence $p_j\to f$ uniformly on every such compact subset.

If the polynomials converge uniformly on the full annulus to $g$, their limit is continuous and equals $f$ on the slit annulus by part (ii). That subset is dense in the full annulus, so $g=f$ everywhere. The Cauchy integral theorem and uniform convergence on the unit circle then give