Weighted argument principle Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-18
The boundary can recover more than a count. Under the hypotheses of the argument principle, let be a holomorphic function on a neighborhood of the contour and its interior. If the enclosed zeros of a function are with zero multiplicities and the enclosed poles are of orders , then
Multiplying the local logarithmic derivative by changes its residue from to , or from to . The residue theorem then gives the identity. Choosing recovers the argument principle; choosing gives the sum of the enclosed zero locations minus the sum of the enclosed pole locations, both counted with zero multiplicities or pole orders.[ref]
For the rational function in argument principle for a rational function, the integral is . Adding the known pole location back gives a zero-location sum of . Dividing by the zero count two gives the arithmetic mean of the enclosed zeros, with multiplicity, as . Choosing similarly gives the difference between the power-sum symmetric polynomials evaluated on the enclosed zero and pole locations, repeating each location according to its multiplicity or order. These identities let boundary information constrain both the number and aggregate locations of enclosed zeros of a function.
For a nonzero elliptic function with period lattice , its zeros of a function and poles , repeated with their multiplicities, have equal total number and satisfy . Choose a fundamental parallelogram avoiding all zeros and poles on its boundary. The argument principle applied to gives equality of the numbers. Applying the residue theorem to gives their difference of sums. Pairing opposite edges, the extra factors are the two lattice generators multiplied by integrals of along an edge. These integrals are integer multiples of , because the endpoints have the same nonzero function value. Thus the difference of sums is a lattice element. This links zeros of a pulled-back line to the chord-and-tangent group law.