Imbedded circle patterns with the combinatorics of the square grid and discrete Painlevé equations (Q1404505)

Thurston's idea of approximating the Riemann mapping by circle packings has recently led to an intense study of circle patterns as discrete analogues of conformal mappings. Here, the Euclidean plane \(\mathbf R^2\) is tiled by the regular square grid with vertices in \(\mathbf Z^2\), and a map \(f:\mathbf Z^2\to\mathbf R^2 \cong \mathbf C\) is called a discrete conformal map if it maps ``elementary squares'' to conformal squares, i.e., the relation \[ \frac{(f_{n,m}-f_{n+1,m}) (f_{n+1,m+1}-f_{n,m+1})} {(f_{n+1,m}-f_{n+1,m+1}) (f_{n,m+1}-f_{n,m})}= -1 \] holds for the cross-ratio of the images of elementary squares. In this paper, the author continues earlier work with \textit{A. Bobenko} [ Int. Math. Res. Not., 165--193 (2000; Zbl 0969.39015)]{} and proves that the discrete analogues of the logarithm and the maps \(z\mapsto z^\gamma\), \(0<\gamma \leq 2\) give rise not only to immersed (as proved in [ loc. cit.]), but even embedded circle patterns. The authors of [ loc. cit.]{} obtained immersed circle patterns analogous to \(z\mapsto z^\gamma\) by supplementing the cross-ratio condition with a certain non-autonomous constraint on the \(f_{n,m}\)'s. (Failure to impose this constraint immediately leads to non-embedded circle patterns.) In particular, these circle patterns turn out to be of Schramm type, i.e., the circumcircles of images of two elementary squares are orthogonal (resp.\ tangent) if the squares have an edge (resp.\ only a vertex) in common. Moreover, all four edges incident to a vertex \(f_{n,m}\) have the same length \(R_{n,m}\). The essential new ingredient for proving embeddedness is a more detailed analysis of certain inequalities relating neighboring \(R_{n,m}\), namely \[ R(z)> 0 \qquad\text{and}\qquad (\gamma-1)\big(R(z)^2-R(z-i)R(z+1)\big)\geq 0, \] where \(R(z)=R_{n,m}\) with \(z=(n-m)/2+i(n+m)/2\). That these inequalities are in fact satisfied is first proved for the circle patterns analogous to \(z\mapsto z^\gamma\) for \(0<\gamma < 2\), and then extended to \(\gamma=2\) by a limiting process. The author then shows that it follows from these inequalities that for all \(n>0\), the piecewise linear curve \(\Gamma_n\) formed by the segments \(\{[f_{n,m}, f_{n,m+1}]:0\leq m\leq n-1\}\) has no self-intersection, and in fact curves to the left (resp. right) by a bounded angle if \(\gamma<1\) (resp. \(\gamma>1\)). He then concludes that the circle pattern is embedded. Finally, the discrete analogue of the logarithm is defined as the discrete conformal map dual to the circle pattern corresponding to \(f(z)=z^2\); this is motivated by the observation that classically, the dual of \(f(z)=z^2\) is (up to a constant) \(f^*(z)=\log z\). Here, a map \(f\) and its dual \(f^*\) are related via \((f^*)'=-1/f'\). This amounts to defining the discrete logarithm as the map corresponding to the circle pattern with radii \[ R_{\text{Log}}(z)= 1/R_{Z^2}(z), \] where \(R_{Z^2}(z)\) are the radii of the circles for \(f(z)=z^2\). The author then concludes via a limiting argument that the circle pattern corresponding to the discrete logarithm is also embedded.