Infinitesimally small spheres and conformally invariant metrics (Q2046130)

Suppose that \(D\) is a domain in \(\mathbb R^n\), \(n\geq 2\), and \(\partial D\) has positive conformal capacity. Let \(K\) be a compact subset of \(D\). We denote by cap\((D,K)\) the \textit{conformal capacity} of the condenser \((D,K)\). This conformally invariant quantity is defined by the formula \[ \mathrm{cap}(D,K)=\inf\int_{D\setminus K} |\nabla u|^n\,dm. \] where \(m\) is the \(n\)-dimensional Lebesgue measure and the infimum is taken over all \(C^1\) functions \(u\) with compact support in \(D\) and \(u\geq 1\) on \(K\). By Ziemer's theorem, cap\((D,K)\) is equal to the modulus of the family of curves joining \(K\) with \(\partial D\) in \(D\). The \textit{modulus metric} on \(D\) is defined by \[ \mu_D(x,y)=\inf\{\mathrm{cap}(D,\gamma): \gamma\;\; \hbox{continuum in}\;\; D,\;x,y\in\gamma \}. \] This is a usefull metric because it is conformally invariant and its properties provide information on the geometry of \(D\); it depends heavily on the eulidean distance of the points \(x,y\) from \(\partial D\) and it is equivalent to the hyperbolic metric if \(D\) is a ball or a half-space. \par It was conjectured by \textit{J. Ferrand} et al. [J. Anal. Math. 56, 187--210 (1991; Zbl 0758.30018)] that every isometry in the modulus metric is a conformal mapping. The first author and the reviewer [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 372, No. 4, 2735--2752 (2019; Zbl 1441.30034)] proved the conjecture when \(n=2\). In the present paper, the authors provide an ingenious proof of the conjecture in all dimensions. The proof uses potential theoretic results for the \(n\)-Laplacian, the geometric transform \textit{polarization}, and a characterization of conformality (due to Reshetnyak) that involves ``infinitesimally small spheres''. A different proof of the conjecture was discovered independently by \textit{X. Zhang} [Sci. China, Math. 64, No. 9, 1951--1958 (2021; Zbl 1490.30016)].