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The prescribed-pole form of Runge theorem is this: let $K\subset \mathbb{C}$ be compact, and let $E\subset \hat{\mathbb{C}}\setminus K$ meet every connected component of the complement in the Riemann sphere. If $f$ is holomorphic on a neighbourhood of $K$, then for every $ϵ>0$ there is a rational function with all its poles in $E$ whose uniform distance from $f$ on $K$ is less than $ϵ$. A polynomial is regarded as having its only possible pole at infinity. The empty compact set is trivial, so assume $K\ne \varnothing$.

First suppose $\infty \in E$. Let $A\subset C(K)$ be the uniform rational approximation algebra with prescribed poles, the uniform closure of rational functions whose finite poles lie in $E$. It is a commutative unital Banach algebra, and contains $u(z)=z$. Setwhere the inverse in this definition is the pointwise continuous function on $K$. The set $S$ is relatively open: if the inverse at $\lambda$ belongs to $A$, the Neumann series gives inverses at nearby points. It is relatively closed: when ${\lambda }_n\to \lambda \notin K$, the corresponding scalar functions converge uniformly on $K$, and $A$ is closed.

Each bounded complementary component meets $E$ in a finite point $a$, and $(u-a1{)}^{-1}$ is an allowed rational function. The unbounded component meets $S$ because for $|\lambda |>\Vert u\Vert$ the geometric series for $(u-\lambda 1{)}^{-1}$ belongs to $A$. Being both open and closed in the complement, $S$ therefore contains every component, so it is the entire complement. Conversely, evaluation at any $z\in K$ prevents $u-z1$ from being invertible. HenceApply the holomorphic functional calculus in $A$ to $f$ near $K$. For every $z\in K$, the evaluation character of an algebra and the contour formula from (b) give $f(u)(z)=f(z)$. Thus $f{|}_K\in A$. By the definition of this uniform closure, the required rational approximations exist.

If $\infty \notin E$, choose a finite point $a\in E$ in the component containing infinity. The Möbius transformation $w=(z-a{)}^{-1}$ sends $K$ to a compact subset $K^{\prime }$ of the plane and sends $E$ to a set $E^{\prime }$ containing infinity. It preserves complementary components, so $E^{\prime }$ meets every component of the complement of $K^{\prime }$. The transformed function $F(w)=f(a+1/w)$ is holomorphic near $K^{\prime }$, since $0\notin K^{\prime }$. The case already proved approximates $F$ by rational functions with poles in $E^{\prime }$. Pulling them back gives rational approximations to $f$ on $K$ with poles only in $E$: a pole at infinity in the $w$-plane becomes a pole at $a$, and every other pole has its prescribed preimage. In particular the pullbacks do not acquire a pole at the original infinity, since $0\notin E^{\prime }$.

This proves the full prescribed-pole theorem, including the case where a pole at infinity is forbidden. If $\mathbb{C}\setminus K$ is connected, take $E=\{\infty \}$ to obtain the polynomial Runge theorem as a corollary.