Conformal invariants and quasiregular mappings (Q1080977)

This is a detailed study of two conformal invariants \(\lambda_ G(x,y)\) and \(\mu_ G(x,y)\) where G is a proper subdomain of \({\mathbb{R}}^ n\) and x,y\(\in G\). Here \(\lambda_ G(x,y)=\inf M(\Delta (\gamma_ x,\gamma_ y;G))\) and \(\mu_ G(x,y)=\inf M(\Delta (\gamma_{x,y},\partial G;G))\) where M is the n-modulus in \({\mathbb{R}}^ n\) and \(\Delta (C_ 1,C_ 2;G)\) is the family of curves which join \(C_ 1\) and \(C_ 2\) in G; \(\gamma_ x\) stands for a path joining x to \(\partial G\) in G and \(\gamma_{x,y}\) is a path joining x to y in G. The paper is divided into three main parts: Part I. Estimates for \(\lambda_ G\) and \(\mu_ G\). Various relations, many of them new, are proved between \(\lambda_ G\) and \(\mu_ G\) and these are also compared to the quasihyperbolic distance \(k_ G(x,y)\) [cf. \textit{F. W. Gehring} and \textit{B. Palka}, ibid. 30, 172-199 (1976; Zbl 0349.30019)], and the metric \[ j_ G(x,y)=\log (1+| x-y| /\min (d(x,\partial G),d(y,\partial G))). \] Part II. The change of \(\lambda_ G\) and \(\mu_ G\) under quasiconformal and quasiregular mappings. Part III. Applications. These include Schwarz lemma for quasiregular mappings [cf. the reviewer, \textit{S. Rickman} and \textit{J. Väisälä}, Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn., Ser. A I, Diss. 465, 1-13 (1970; Zbl 0197.057)], uniform continuity of quasiregular mappings, especially uniformly p- valent, and normal quasimeromorphic functions. All these are natural extensions of the corresponding concepts for analytic functions.