A gradient estimate for harmonic functions sharing the same zeros

Abstract

Let $u, v$ be two harmonic functions in $\{|z|<2\}\subset\mathbb{C}$ which have exactly the same set $Z$ of zeros. We observe that $\big|\nabla\log |u/v|\big|$ is bounded in the unit disk by a constant which depends on $Z$ only. In case $Z=\emptyset$ this goes back to Li-Yau's gradient estimate for positive harmonic functions. The general boundary Harnack principle gives only Holder estimates on $\log |u/v|$.