Complex power functions

Arijit Ganguly
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

August 20, 2023

To begin with, let us recall how power functions are defined over R. For x > 0 and a ∈ R,

xa = ea log x .
def
(∗1)

It follows from the definition, given as above in (∗1), that for any fixed a ∈ R, x 7→ xa is a C ∞ function
from (0, ∞) to (0, ∞). We now adapt (∗1) over C to define complex power functions.

Let z ∈ C\{0} and w ∈ C. Unlike the real scenario, here we have too many (branches of) logarithm,
and moreover, there is no canonical choice among them. Hence To make the definition of zw , we first
need to make a choice of α ∈ R, and then we proceed as before:

zw = exp(w logα z).

def
(∗2)

Thus we can see that, for given z ∈ C \ {0} and w ∈ C, zw does depend upon the choice of the branch
logα . Indeed, varying α, one obtains all possible values of zw . It is now immediate in view of the
definition (∗2) that, given α ∈ R,

C \ Rα −→ C \ {0}, z 7→ zw , (∗3)

is a holomorphic function. From now on, once we have made the choice of α, we shall assume that
the domain of the power function z 7→ zw is C \ Rα , unless otherwise mentioned. It is clear that the
derivative of (∗3) at any point z ∈ C \ Rα is wzw−1 .

As mentioned above, unlike the scenario over R where power of a positive number is a unique
number, here zw has more than one values, until and unless we make a choice of α. In fact, for given
x > 0 and a ∈ R, the value of xa obtained from (∗1) is included in the set of values that (∗2) yields by
varying α. To see this, take α = −π. Then

xa = exp(a log−π x) = exp(a log x) = ea log x ,

1
as exp and log−π extends the exponential and logarithm functions over R respectively. In what follows,
when a = 1n , where n ∈ N, we shall see how all n-th roots of a, including the complex ones, can be
obtained by making different choices of α.
√
Let us first consider the simple case where a = 12 . As seen above, taking α = −π, we get the x,
i.e., the positive square root of x. Now observe that
! ! !
1 1 1 √ √
exp logπ x = exp logπ (exp(log x + 2πi)) = exp (log x + 2πi) = x exp(iπ) = − x.
2 2 2
  2
Thus α = π gives us the negative square root. As, for any α ∈ R, exp 12 logπ x = exp(logα x) = x,
√ √
so x and − x are precisely all the values that we obtain from (∗2) by varying α. Geometrically the
curve
√ y2 = x has two branches. It is customary to choose the branch in which y > 0 and denote y by
x. We obtain this branch from that of the complex square root function corresponding to α = −π,
while α = π yields us the other branch, i.e., in which y < 0.

Let n ∈ N. Choose k ∈ Z such that 2kπ ≤ α < 2(k + 1)π. If α = 2kπ, we see that
! !
1 1
exp logα x = exp logα exp(log x + 2kπi)


n n
!
1
= exp (log x + 2kπi)
n
!
√n 2kπi
= x · exp .
n
  √  
Similarly one obtains that exp n1 logα x = n x · exp 2(k+1)πi
n
, when α > 2kπ, as then one has 2(k + 1)π
  √  
lies in ∈ [α, α + 2π). Thus exp 1n logα x is always of the form n x · exp 2kπi n
, where k ∈ Z. Write
   
k = nq + r, where q ∈ Z and r ∈ {0, 1, . . . , n − 1}. Then it is easy to see that exp 2kπi
n
= exp 2rπi
n
.
1
This shows that, the values of x n that we obtain from (∗2) by varying α are precisely the following:
! ! !
√n √n 2πi √n 4πi √n 2(n − 1)πi
x, x · exp , x · exp , . . . , x · exp . (∗4)
n n n

Note that, the complex numbers as listed above in (∗4), are precisely all roots of the equation zn = x.