In complex analysis, a branch of mathematics, the Hadamard three-circle theorem is a result about the behavior of holomorphic functions.

Hadamard three-circle theorem: Let ${\displaystyle f(z)}$ be a holomorphic function on the annulus ${\displaystyle r_{1}\leq \left|z\right|\leq r_{3}}$. Let ${\displaystyle M(r)}$ be the maximum of ${\displaystyle |f(z)|}$ on the circle ${\displaystyle |z|=r.}$ Then, ${\displaystyle \log M(r)}$ is a convex function of the logarithm ${\displaystyle \log(r).}$ Moreover, if ${\displaystyle f(z)}$ is not of the form ${\displaystyle cz^{\lambda }}$ for some constants ${\displaystyle \lambda }$ and ${\displaystyle c}$, then ${\displaystyle \log M(r)}$ is strictly convex as a function of ${\displaystyle \log(r).}$

The conclusion of the theorem can be restated as

${\displaystyle \log \left({\frac {r_{3}}{r_{1}}}\right)\log M(r_{2})\leq \log \left({\frac {r_{3}}{r_{2}}}\right)\log M(r_{1})+\log \left({\frac {r_{2}}{r_{1}}}\right)\log M(r_{3})}$

for any three concentric circles of radii ${\displaystyle r_{1}<r_{2}<r_{3}.}$

The three circles theorem follows from the fact that for any real a, the function Re log(z^af(z)) is harmonic between two circles, and therefore takes its maximum value on one of the circles. The theorem follows by choosing the constant a so that this harmonic function has the same maximum value on both circles.

The theorem can also be deduced directly from Hadamard's three-line theorem.^[1]

A statement and proof for the theorem was given by J.E. Littlewood in 1912, but he attributes it to no one in particular, stating it as a known theorem. Harald Bohr and Edmund Landau attribute the theorem to Jacques Hadamard, writing in 1896; Hadamard published no proof.^[2]

• Maximum principle
• Logarithmically convex function
• Hardy's theorem
• Hadamard three-line theorem
• Borel–Carathéodory theorem
• Phragmén–Lindelöf principle

• Edwards, H.M. (1974), Riemann's Zeta Function, Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-41740-9
• Littlewood, J. E. (1912), "Quelques consequences de l'hypothese que la function ζ(s) de Riemann n'a pas de zeros dans le demi-plan Re(s) > 1/2.", Les Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences, 154: 263–266
• E. C. Titchmarsh, The theory of the Riemann Zeta-Function, (1951) Oxford at the Clarendon Press, Oxford. (See chapter 14)
• Ullrich, David C. (2008), Complex made simple, Graduate Studies in Mathematics, vol. 97, American Mathematical Society, pp. 386–387, ISBN 0821844792

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• "proof of Hadamard three-circle theorem"