On the approximation of a continuum by lemniscates (Q1583973)

For an arbitrary continuum \(E\) in the complex plane with connected complement \(\Omega\) the boundary \(\partial E\) can be approximated by lemniscates. The author gives a quantitative version of this theorem. Let \(\Psi\) be the conformal mapping of the exterior \(\{z:|z|>1\}\) of the unit disc to \(\Omega\) normalized by \(\Psi(\infty)=\infty\) and let \(L_s\) be the image of the circle \(|z|=1+s\) for \(s>0\). Let \(s_n(E)\) be the infimum of \(s>0\) for which there exists a polynomial \(p_n\) of degree \(n\) such that the lemniscate \(J(p_n):=\{z:|p_n(z)|=1\}\) is outside \(E\) but inside \(L_s\). The author proves that for an arbitrary continuum \(E\) the inequality \(s_n(E) =O(\log n/n)\) holds. For boundaries \(\partial E\) with bounded secant variation this can be improved to \(s_n(E) =O(1/n)\). This estimate cannot be improved when the boundary curve has a corner with interior angle \(<\pi\).