The ABC Theorem for Meromorphic Functions

Abstract

Using a `height-to-radical' identity, we define the archimedean contribution to the radical, $r_\arch$, and we give a new proof of the abc theorem for the field of meromorphic functions. The first step of the proof is completely formal and yields that the height is bounded by the radical, $h\leq r$, where $r=r_\na+r_\arch$ is the radical completed with the archimedean contribution. The second step is analytic in nature and uses the lemma on the logarithmic derivative to derive a bound for $r_\arch$.