Isoperimetric properties of the module and quasiconformal mappings (Q1091504)

Let \(\Omega\) be a doubly connected region in the complex plane \({\mathbb{C}}\) with boundary components \(\gamma_ 1\) and \(\gamma_ 2\). Assume \(\gamma_ 1\) is a rectifiable closed Jordan curve and \(\gamma_ 2\) lies in the exterior of \(\gamma_ 1\). Recall that M(\(\Omega)\), the module of \(\Omega\), is the module of the family of all locally rectifiable closed Jordan curves in \(\Omega\) that separate the components of \(\partial \Omega\). The author establishes the sharp estimate \[ M(\Omega)\quad \geq \frac{1}{2\pi}\log [1+\frac{2\pi dist(\gamma_ 1,\gamma_ 2)}{length(\gamma_ 1)}]. \] When \(\gamma_ 2\) is also a closed Jordan curve, equality does not hold unless \(\Omega\) is an annulus. An analogous estimate holds when \(\gamma_ 2\) lies in the interior of \(\gamma_ 1\). This estimate is obtained from a formula for calculating the module of the family of level curves of a Lipschitz function which might be of independent interest. Recently, \textit{B. Hanson} and \textit{D. A. Herron} [The interior distance ratio in quadrilaterals and inequalities for rings, Complex Variables (to appear; Zbl 0606.30011)] independently obtained this inequality as well as a number of related estimates for rings and quadrilaterals. As an application of this estimate the author considers the following extremal problem. Let \({\mathbb{P}}(L,m)\) be the class of all doubly connected regions in \({\mathbb{C}}\) such that (i) one component of \(\partial \Omega\) is a rectifiable closed Jordan curve with length at most L and (ii) the module of \(\Omega\) is at most m. Determine the region in \({\mathbb{P}}(L,m)\) which maximizes the distance between the boundary components. The author shows that an annulus maximizes the distance between the boundary components and this extremal region is unique in the subfamily \({\mathbb{P}}_ 0(L,m)\) which consists of all doubly connected regions in which both boundary components are closed Jordan curves. Another application is to isoperimetric estimates of the distortion of an annulus under a quasiconformal mapping.