The denominator factors as and neither factor cancels with the numerator. Thus there are simple poles at . At infinity the quotient tends to one and has a regular expansion in , so it has a removable singularity at infinity, with extended value one.
The denominator factors as , with no cancellation against the numerator. Thus there are
To inspect infinity, put :
Hence infinity is a removable singularity at infinity, with limiting value zero. After this natural extension to the Riemann sphere it is also a simple zero. There are no other zeros or singularities.
The reciprocal chart makes infinity an ordinary coordinate origin. Its domain is the Riemann sphere minus the point ; and elsewhere. A neighbourhood of infinity becomes the open disc . In sphere coordinates this is exactly the cap
For , the exterior together with infinity becomes and . The boundary itself is excluded from each open set.
Figure 1.
The same neighbourhood of infinity as a plane exterior, a north-pole cap, and a disc in the reciprocal chart
. Details.
The point lies in this neighbourhood because . Its reciprocal coordinate is , with , and its sphere height is . The negative imaginary part of is the axis reversal required by the holomorphic stereographic atlas of the sphere.
For a complex-valued holomorphic function defined outside a large disc, having a removable singularity at infinity means that extends to a holomorphic function at . This definition reduces questions at infinity to familiar questions at a finite point.[ref] For example,
The geometric series gives a Taylor series at the new origin, so and . The coefficient is the derivative in the specified coordinate. In contrast, becomes , displaying a pole of order two at infinity when the target is the complex plane. As a holomorphic map to the Riemann sphere, it uses the target reciprocal coordinate , which is regular at zero.