Caucy-Riemann equations and differentiability question

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The discussion centers on the Cauchy-Riemann equations and their role in determining the differentiability of complex functions. The user presents the function (z*)^2/z, which seemingly satisfies the Cauchy-Riemann equations at z = 0 but is not differentiable there, raising questions about the necessity and sufficiency of these equations. It is clarified that for the Cauchy-Riemann equations to hold, the real and imaginary parts of the function must be differentiable with respect to real variables. Furthermore, the distinction between complex differentiability and analyticity is emphasized, noting that complex differentiability at a point does not guarantee analyticity in its neighborhood.

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bitrex
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I'm doing a little self study on complex analysis, and am having some trouble with a concept.

From Wikipedia:

"In mathematics, the Cauchy–Riemann differential equations in complex analysis, named after Augustin Cauchy and Bernhard Riemann, consist of a system of two partial differential equations that provides a necessary and sufficient condition for a differentiable function to be holomorphic in an open set."

But I have a function here, (z*)^2/z, which appears to satisfy the Cauchy-Riemann equations at z = 0, but the function is not differentiable there. Isn't this a contradiction that the above condition is both necessary and sufficient?
 
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bitrex said:
But I have a function here, (z*)^2/z, which appears to satisfy the Cauchy-Riemann equations at z = 0, but the function is not differentiable there. Isn't this a contradiction that the above condition is both necessary and sufficient?

As you say, the derivatives in the CR equation don't exist at z=0, so I'm not sure why you believe that the CR equations are satisfied. A prerequisite to CR is that the real and imaginary parts of the function are differentiable with respect to the real variables.
 
Thanks for your reply, I'm not sure exactly why I thought they were satisfied either! I see now that they are not.

A further question - some exercises in the problem set I'm working on ask me to determine where a complex function is differentiable, and some to determine where the function is analytic. If a complex function is differentiable at point Z_o, is that also a sufficient condition to assume that the function is analytic in the neighborhood of Z_o? The text I'm using is not clear on this, so I'm not sure if in the problem set they are essentially asking me the same thing with different terminology.
 
We need to differentiate between real differentiability and complex differentiability. Complex differentiability means that

\lim_{h\rightarrow 0, h\in \mathbb{C}} \frac{f(z_0+h)-f(z_0)}{h} = f'(z_0) ~~~(*)

exists. If the CR equations are satisfied, the function is both analytic and complex differentiable. If our function were not analytic, the derivative (*) would not make sense.
 
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