Minimal growth of entire functions with prescribed zeros outside exceptional sets

Abstract

Let $h$ be a positive continuous increasing to $+\infty$ function on $\mathbb{R}$. It is proved that for an arbitrary complex sequence $(\zeta_n)$ such that $0<|\zeta_1|\le|\zeta_2|\le\dots$ and $\zeta_n\to\infty$ as $n\to\infty$, there exists an entire function $f$ whose zeros are the $\zeta_n$, with multiplicities taken into account, for which
$$
\ln m_2(r,f)=o(N(r)),\quad r\notin E,\ r\to+\infty.
$$
with a set $E$ satisfying $\int_{E\cap(1,+\infty)}h(r)dr<+\infty$, if and only if $\ln h(r)=O(\ln r)$ as $r\to+\infty$.
Here $N(r)$ is the integrated counting function of the sequence $(\zeta_n)$ and
$$
m_2(r,f)=\left(\frac{1}{2\pi}\int_0^{2\pi}|\ln|f(re^{i\theta})||^2d\theta\right)^{1/2}.
$$