Loewner's ``forgotten'' theorem (Q2094394)

This paper is devoted to the study of ``Loewner's forgotten theorem'', which is closely related to Loewner's conjecture, which, in turn, as the authors remark is closely related to Carathéodory's conjecture. Carathéodory's conjecture states that a smooth closed simply connected surface in \(\mathbb{R}^{3}\) has at least two distinct umbilic points, i.e., points at which the principal curvatures are equal. As the authors notice, an oriented smooth closed curve partitions the plane into a number of regions. For every point that does not lie on the curve, the number of complete turns that the curve makes about this point is called the rotation number of the curve about the point. Clearly, the rotation number about any point in a region is the same as that for every other point in the region. The rotation number is an integer; its sign indicates whether the total rotation is counterclockwise or clockwise. The paper contains new results for those interested in Loewner's conjecture.