Solvability of meromorphic equations in elementary functions

Abstract

An equation $f(x)=a$, where $f$ is a complex meromorphic function and $a\in \mathbb{C}$ is a parameter, is solvable in elementary functions if the inverse map $x=f^{-1}(a)$ can be expressed as a finite composition of arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), the exponential function, the complex logarithm, and constants. Specific functions such as $\tan x-x$, $\exp x+x$, $x^x$ have been proven to be unsolvable by Kanel-Belov, Malistov, Zaytsev, while almost all entire surjective functions of at most exponential growth have been covered by Zelenko. All these rely on one-dimensional topological Galois theory, developed by Khovanskii. We generalize to provide a proof for the unsolvability of all elementary meromorphic functions $f$ such that the derivative of $f$ has infinitely many roots $x_i$ and the set of distinct values $f(x_i)$ is infinite.

9 pages