TITLE: Complex Exponential as a limit
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: I need some help with a homework problem.
This is Ahlfors exercise 1 p. 178:
Using Taylor's Theorem applied to a branch of $\log (1 + \frac{z}{n})$ prove that $\lim (1 + \frac{z}{n})^n=e^z$ uniformly on all compact sets.
What I did:
Taking the principal branch we have by Taylor's:
$$\log \left(1 + \frac{z}{n}\right) = z -\frac{z^2}{n}+\frac{2z^3}{n^2}- \ldots +f_m(z)z^m$$
Where $f_m(z)$ is a analytic function in the region where the branch is defined, hence:
$$1 + \frac{z}{n} = e^{z -\frac{z^2}{n}+\frac{2z^3}{n^2}- \ldots +f_m(z)z^m}$$
$$\Rightarrow \left(1 + \frac{z}{n}\right)^n = e^{n\left(z -\frac{z^2}{n}+\frac{2z^3}{n^2}- \ldots +f_m(z)z^m\right)}$$ then I got stuck, I really apreciate your help. Thanks.

REPLY [2 votes]: My answer is to a large extent in the same spirit as Ron Gordon's. I simply try to make it a bit clearer and remove some unnecessary redundancy.
Take compact set $C_r$ to be the closed disc centered at 1 of radius $r$.
For any sufficiently large $n > n_r$, $\log{\left ( 1 + \frac{z}{n} \right )}$ is well defined and analytic on $C_r$.
Using Theorem 8 on Page 125 in Ahlfors' book, we have
$$\log{\left ( 1 + \frac{z}{n} \right )} = \frac{z}{n} + f_2\left(1+\frac{z}{n}\right) \left(\frac{z}{n}\right)^2 $$
where $f_2\left (1 + \frac{z}{n} \right ) $ is analytic on $C_r$. Since $C_r$ is compact, $f_2\left (1 + \frac{z}{n} \right ) \leq M_r $ for all $n > n_r$ and $z \in C_r$.
Multiply both sides by $n$, we have
$$n\log{\left ( 1 + \frac{z}{n} \right )} = z + f_2\left(1+\frac{z}{n}\right) \frac{z^2}{n} $$
where the $\Big|f_2\left(1+\frac{z}{n}\right) \frac{z^2}{n}\Big| \leq \frac{M_r(1+r)^2}{n}$ tends uniformly to 0 on $C_r$ as $n \rightarrow \infty$. Equivalently, we have
$$\lim_{n\rightarrow\infty} \left(1+\frac{z}{n}\right)^n = e^z$$
uniformly on $C_r$.
Since any compact set is contained in a $C_r$ for a sufficiently large $r$, we have what we intend to prove.