1. Introduction
Differential subordination is an important part of geometric function theory. This concept generalizes and extends the notion of differential inequalities to complex functions. Differential subordination was first proposed and developed by S. Miller and P. Mocanu. They wrote many research papers concerning this notion (see, e.g., [
1,
2,
3,
4]), and a survey of this theory can be found in their monograph [
5].
Subordinate techniques are an effective tool for examining properties of analytic and univalent functions. Establishing that an unknown function is subordinate to a certain known function is used to derive results concerning geometric properties of functions (like starlikeness or convexity) and also, e.g., helps to determine the range of coefficients of functions or the range of their derivatives.
This is why there is still such great interest in this topic among many mathematicians. For some applications of differential subordination, we refer, e.g., to [
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11]. More recent results in the theory can be found, e.g., in [
12,
13,
14,
15,
16,
17].
Denote by U the unit disk in the complex plane . Let f and F be two functions holomorphic in the disk U. We say that a function f is subordinate to F in U and write in U, if there exists a holomorphic function such that and for . Hence, in U implies . Let denote the class of all functions f normalized by that are analytic in U and let be the subclass of consisting of univalent functions.
By
we denote the class of strongly starlike functions of order
, introduced by Stankiewicz [
18] and independently by Brannan and Kirwan [
19]. Recall that
is strongly starlike of order
,
if and only if
or, equivalently, in terms of subordination, if and only if
For
, we get the whole class
of starlike functions.
Geometrically, if and only if is starlike with respect to the origin and if and only if for every , a certain lens-shaped region with end points 0 and w lies in .
Let
denote the set of functions
q that are analytic and univalent on
, where
such that
for
.
Definition 1 ([
1])
. Let Ω be a domain in and . We define to be the class of functions that satisfy the following:(a) is continuous in a domain ,
(b) and ,
(c) , when andwhere , is finite and . We write as .
Lemma 1 ([
1])
. Let and with corresponding domain D. Let be regular in U with and . If when andthen . In this paper, we use this principal lemma to obtain some subordination results connected with some angular regions that are symmetric with respect to the real axis. These regions are the images of the unit disk under functions that generate the class of strongly starlike functions of order
and some of its subclasses. In particular, we obtain some sufficient condition, in terms of differential subordination, for a function to be uniformly starlike in
U. Applying the main results, we derive, in
Section 3, some sufficient conditions under which analytic functions are subordinate to a given function closely connected with the class of Janowski starlike functions or with the class
of starlike functions related to the class of
k-uniformly convex functions. In general, it is hard to obtain the explicit form of a function that satisfies a given differential subordination. In
Section 4, we find such functions and present some non-trivial examples illustrating some applications of our results.
2. Main Results
For fixed
, let
Then
. Moreover
Hence,
and
.
Theorem 1. Let and with . If p is analytic in U with and satisfiesthen in U. Proof. Let
and
. Then
satisfies the admissibility condition
if and only if
In view of Lemma 1, it suffices to show that
for
. □
We have
It is sufficient to consider
, where
. For
, we get
For
, we get
Thus
and
Hence, if
are such that
, then
, and by Lemma 1, the result follows.
Remark 1. Our Theorem 1 coincides with the result obtained in[2], but the proofs are independent. For , we get
Corollary 1. Let . If p is analytic in U with and satisfiesthen Taking in Theorem 1, we get
Corollary 2. Let and . If p is analytic in U with and satisfiesthen Taking in Theorem 1 we get
Corollary 3. Let and with . If satisfiesthen Taking in Theorem 1, we get
Corollary 4. Let and with . If satisfiesthen Let
and
denote the classes of uniformly convex and uniformly starlike functions, respectively, introduced by Goodman ([
20,
21]). Recall that a function
is in the class
(
) if for every circular arc
with center
, the arc
is convex (starlike with respect to
). Goodman proved that
In [
22], the following sufficient condition for uniform starlikeness was proved.
Lemma 2. Let , . Ifthen Using Corollary 4 with and applying Lemma 2, we immediately get
Corollary 5. Let with . If satisfiesthen . Theorem 2. Let and be such thatIf p is analytic in U with and satisfiesthen Proof. Let
and
. Then
satisfies the admissibility condition
if and only if
In view of Lemma 1, it suffices to show that
It is sufficient to consider
, where
Note that
and
Hence
Let
We show that
for
, where
We have
and
We see that
and
. Thus, for
, we have
with
, so
If
, then
and
,
. Hence,
and if
are such that
, then
. Therefore, by Lemma 1, the result follows. □
Remark 2. We check what will happen if we allow α to be equal to 1 in the thesis statement of Theorem 2. From the proof of Theorem 2, we see that for , we haveandThus, the admissibility conditionis fulfilled only for . Corollary 6. Let and . If p is analytic in U with and satisfiesthen Miller and Mocanu in [
3] obtained the following general result.
Theorem 3. Let δ and γ be complex numbers with , and let p and h be analytic in U with . If satisfies
and either
thenimplies that . Remark 3. We know that the function q is convex and for . In view of Theorem 3 (for , ), we have an implication as in Corollary 6 for so Corollary 6 does not represent anything new. However, if β is such thatthen . Hence, our result from Theorem 2 improves the result of Miller and Mocanu in Theorem 3. Taking in Theorem 2, we get
Corollary 7. Let and be such thatIf satisfiesthen Taking in Theorem 2, we get
Corollary 8. Let and be such thatIf satisfiesthen Using Corollary 8 with and applying Lemma 2, we immediately get
Corollary 9. Let and . If satisfiesthen . 3. Some Applications
Let
denote the class of all
k-uniformly convex functions introduced in [
23]. This class was obtained by taking
such that
, in Goodman’s definition of uniform convexity. Clearly,
, and for
, we obtain a whole class of convex functions. Let
,
denote the subclass of starlike functions introduced and investigated in [
24], defined by
Then (see [
24])
belongs to the class
if and only if
For
, it is the class
introduced and investigated by Rønning in [
25].
The class
is related to conic domains (see [
23,
24]):
where
and the boundary of
is the conic curve
Note that
is the right branch of the hyperbola for
, the parabola
for
, and the ellipse for
.
The function
, analytic and univalent in
U, such that
and
, designates the function that is extremal for many problems in the class
. It is known that [
25,
26]
For the explicit form of functions
for
and
, we refer to [
23,
24].
Observe that for . Using this relation and Theorem 1 with , we immediately get
Corollary 10. Let and be such that . If p is analytic in U with and satisfiesor equivalentlythen Taking or in Corollary 9, we get
Corollary 11. Let and be such that . If , then Using the relation for and Theorem 2 with , we immediately get
Corollary 12. Let and be such thatIf p is analytic in U with and satisfiesthen Taking or in Corollary 12, we get
Corollary 13. Let and be such thatIf , then Denote by
the class of Janowski starlike functions [
27]. A function
belongs to the class
for
if and only if
or, equivalently, if and only if
Observe that is the disk with the center at and the radius . We are looking for the smallest such that the disk is contained in the angle . Simple geometry shows that
Using Theorem 1 with , we get
Corollary 14. Let and be such that andIf p is analytic in U with and satisfiesor, equivalently,then Taking or in Corollary 14, we get
Corollary 15. Let and be such that andIf , then Applying the relation and Theorem 2 with , we immediately get
Corollary 16. Let and be such that andIf p is analytic in U with and satisfiesthen Taking or in Corollary 16, we get
Corollary 17. Let and be such that andIf , then 4. Concluding Remarks
We gave some differential subordination results for classes of strongly starlike functions of order and their various subclasses. Using Miller–Mocanu’s lemma, we derived sufficient conditions under which analytic functions are subordinate to a given function closely related to the class of strongly starlike functions of order .
Obtained results can be used to generate non-trivial examples of functions illustrating the application of the main theorems.
Example 1. LetThenThus, in view of Corollary 3for such that . Example 2. Let andThenand it maps U onto the diskcontained in the region Thuswhere . Hence, by Corollary 3for such that Example 3. LetThenThis function maps the unit disk onto the domain bounded by the hyperbolaand Thusand by Corollary 3for such that . Example 4. LetThenThe image of the unit disk U under is the region bounded by the lemniscateand Thusand by Corollary 3for such that . Example 5. Let be such that and it satisfiesWe know (see the previous example) thatThus, by Corollary 8for such that Example 6. Let be such that and it satisfiesThen by Corollary 8for such that