Laurent Series Example

Nicholas Hoell Course: MAT 354

December 4th, 2013
I want to go over the example done in the review section in gory detail. Consider
f(z) =
1
z(z 1)(z 2)
Then f(z) has three dierent Laurent series representations on the annuli A
0,1
(0), A
1,2
(0)
and {|z| > 2}. In general, and this example illustrates this, we cannot speak of the Laurent
series of f without talking about which annulus we are expanding in. Moreover we need to
be careful about which point we are expanding around.
Method 1. Notice that in we may write f(z) as
f(z) =
1
2
z

1
z 1
+
1
2
z 2
whereby on A
0,1
(0) we want to get things in a suitable form for using a geometrical series
argument we write this as
f =
1
2z
+
1
1 z

1
2
2
1
1
z
2
=
1
2z
+

n0
z
n

n0
z
n
2
n+2
So
f(z) =
1
2
z
1
+

n0
(1
1
2
n+2
)z
n
, z A
0,1
(0)
Is the Laurent expansion for f in A
0,1
(0). Note, in particular that f has a simple pole at
z = 0 and that
Res(f; 0) =
1
2
Next we look at the Laurent expansion for f with z A
1,2
(0). Rewriting things again so
1
that we can apply the geometric series trick again we have
f(z) =
1
2z
+
1
1 z

1
2
2
1
1
z
2
1
2z

1
z
1
1
z

1
2
2
1
1
z
2
=
1
z
(
1
2

n0
z
n
)

n0
z
n
2
n+2
=
1
z
(
1
2

n1
z
n
)

n0
z
n
2
n+2
=
1
2z

n2
z
n

n0
z
n
2
n+2
i.e.
f(z) =
1
2z

n2
z
n

n0
z
n
2
n+2
, z A
1,2
(0)
is the Laurent expansion for f(z) in the annulus A
1,2
(0). I want you to NOTICE that the
coecient of
1
z
appearing above is NOT Res(f; 0).
Think of it this way. Consider the 3 Laurent series
f =

nZ
a
n
z
n
, z A
0,1
(0)
f =

nZ
b
n
z
n
, z A
1,2
(0)
and
f =

nZ
c
n
(z 1)
n
, z A
0,
1
2
(1)
Then a
1
= Res(f; 0) = b
1
and c
1
= Res(f; 1) = b
1
. I encourage you to check that
b
1
= 1. Moving onwards on {|z| > 2} we have
f(z) =
1
2z
+
1
1 z

1
2
2
1
1
z
2
=
1
2z

1
z
1
1
z
+
1
2
1
z
1 (
2
z
)
=
1
2z

n1
z
n
+
1
2z

n0
2
n
z
n
=
1
2z
(
1
z
+
1
z
2
+ ) +
1
2z
(1 +
2
z
+
4
z
2
+
8
z
3
+ )
=
1
z
3
+
3
z
4
+ (1)
2
Notice, the coecient of
1
z
is actually zero in this region.
Method 2. Here we gure out the Laurent expansion by reducing everything to calcu-
lation of residues. We already saw that generically, if a function g(z) is holomorphic in a
punctured disk around a point z
0
then
g =

nZ
a
n
(z z
0
)
n
, a
n
=
1
2i

C(z
0
)
f()d
( z
0
)
n+1
where C

(z
0
) lives in the punctured disk. Then, lets look at f(z) as before. Wed like to nd
the Laurent series around z
0
= 0. Notice that f(z) has a simple pole at z = 0 so necessary
the coecient of
1
z
in the Laurent expansion around 0 can be calculated easily from the
residue formulae, namely
a
1
=
1
2
Next, we want a
n
for other choices of n. Notice
a
n
=
1
2i

C(0)
d

n+2
( 1)( 2)
So, by Cauchys theorem, if n + 2 0 a
n
= 0, in other words the Laurent series will be of
the form

nZ
a
n
z
n
=

n1
a
n
z
n
. For n 0 a
n
will be the residue of
1
z
n+2
(z1)(z2)
at 0.
We use of residue formula to get
a
n
= Res(
1
z
n+2
(z 1)(z 2)
; 0)
= lim
0
1
(n + 1)!
(
d
d
)
n+1
1
( 1)( 2)
= lim
0
1
(n + 1)!
{
(n + 1)!(1)
n
( 2)
n+2

(n + 1)!(1)
n
( 1)
n+2
}
=
1
2
n+2
+ 1
which is in agreement with our earlier calculation. Next we look in A
1,2
(0). Here we have,
for 1 < r < 2
a
n
=
1
2i

|z|=r
f()d

n+1
|z| = r encloses two residues of f so we see that actually we have (with (0, 1))
1
2i

|z|=r0
f()d

n+1
=
1
2i

|z|=
f()d

n+1
+ Res(
f(z)
z
n+1
; 1)
But Res(
f(z)
z
n+1
; 1) = 1 (as I encouraged you to check earlier) and
1
2i

|z|=
f()d

n+1
is what we
calculated earlier. In other words a
n
= {previous a
n
} 1. So we get the Laurent series we
3
want by subtracting z
n
from each term of index n Z which we had previously calculated.
Thus
f =
1
2z
+

n0
(
1
2
n+2
+ 1)z
n

n=
z
n
=
1
2z

n0
(
1
2
n+2
)z
n

n2
z
n
i.e.
f =
1
2z

n0
(
1
2
n+2
)z
n

n2
z
n
, z A
1,2
(0)
Notice this is the exact same answer we got using the previous method only this time it
seems we saved a bit of time. Repeating the style of argument we should get the Laurent
expansion for f in {|z| > 2} by adding in the residues of
f(z)
z
n+2
at z = 2. By our standard
formula
Res(
f(z)
z
n+2
; 2) = 2
n2
So we will take

1
2z

n0
(
1
2
n+2
)z
n

n2
z
n
+

n=
z
n
2
n+2
=
1
2z

n2
z
n
+

n=1
z
n
2
n+2
And we see then
f(z) =
1
2z
(
1
z
2
+
1
z
3
+ ) + (
1
2z
+
1
z
2
+
2
z
3
+ ) =
1
z
3
+
3
z
4
+ , |z| > 2
Notice that, again, this saved some time and got the same Laurent series expansion as we
saw before. Which method of calculation you prefer is, obviously, a matter of taste.
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