Schwarz's lemma for circle packings. II (Q1103748)

In [[1] \textit{B. Rodin} and \textit{D. Sullivan}, J. Diff. Geometry 26, 349- 360 (1987)] it is shown that the Riemann mapping function is the limit of circle packing isomorphisms as the circles shrink to points. In [[2] \textit{B. Rodin}, Invent. Math. 89, 271-289 (1987; Zbl 0634.30009)] and in the present paper this connection between conformal mapping and circle packing is investigated further. The rate of convergence of the circle packing isomorphisms is estimated and information is obtained about the relationship of the derivative of the Riemann mapping function to the ratio of the radii of image circle to preimage circle under these isomorphisms. In [1] the following question was raised: under the circle packing isomorphisms, does the ratio of the radius of an image circle to that of its preimage converge to the modulus of the derivative of the Riemann mapping function? It is known that the answer is affirmative if the convergence is taken in the \(L^ p\) norm on compact subsets for some \(p>2\). In the present paper it is proved that the convergence actually holds in the norm of bounded mean oscillation (BMO) on compact subsets (Theorem 6). A key ingredient of the proof is the Schwarz lemma analog for circle packings [2]. As another application of this Schwarz lemma analog - specifically, the BMO estimates - a sufficient condition is found for the convergence to be uniform. This condition, which is much weaker than the previously known condition, refers to the hexagonal packing constants \(s_ n\) introduced in [1]. For \(n\geq 2\) the constant \(s_ n\) is defined as the smallest number with the property that, for any circle packing which is combinatorically equivalent to n generations of the regular hexagonal circle packing, the ratio \(\rho\) of the radius of a circle of generation 1 to the radius of the circle of generation 0 satisfies \(| 1-\rho | \leq s_ n\). It is shown in [1] that \(s_ n\to 0\) as \(n\to \infty.\) It had been known previously that if \(s_ n=O(1/n)\) as \(n\to \infty\) then the convergence of the ratio-of-radii function to the modulus of the Riemann mapping function is uniform on compact subsets. In Theorem 8 of the present paper it is shown that the weaker condition \(s_ n=o(1/\log^{4+\epsilon}n)\) is sufficient for the convergence to be uniform on compact subsets. New estimates on the rate of convergence of the circle packing isomorphisms to the Riemann mapping function are obtained. Theorem 5 shows that this rate is of order at most \(\sqrt{s_{[1/2\epsilon^{1/2}]}}+\epsilon^{1/4})\), where \(\epsilon\) is the size of the preimage circles and \(s_ n\) is the packing constant defined above. A lemma used in the proof can be considered as an analog for circle packings of the fact that a conformal mapping onto the disk