Extremal length decomposition and domain constants for finitely connected domains (Q2255476)

The paper is concerned with the relations between various constants of (finitely-connected) Jordan domains in the extended complex plane. To be precise, let be given a simply-connected Jordan domain \(\Omega\) in the extended complex plane \(\overline{\mathbb C}\), and also a pair of disjoint nondegenerate continua \(A\) and \(B\) in \(\overline{\Omega}\). Denote by \(\text{mod}(A,B;\Omega)\) the modulus of the family \(\Gamma(A,B;\Omega)\) of curves that join \(A\) and \(B\) in \(\Omega.\) Then the quasi-extremal distance (QED) constant \(M(\Omega)\) is defined as \[ M(\Omega)=\sup\frac{\text{mod}(A,B;\mathbb C)}{\text{mod}(A,B;\Omega)},\tag{1} \] where the supremum is taken over all pairs of disjoint continua \(A\) and \(B\) in \(\overline{\Omega}.\) It is known that the QED constant \(M(\Omega)\) reflects the geometric properties of the domain \(\Omega\). For example, a domain \(\Omega\) has a finite QED constant and is called a QED domain if and only if \(\Omega\) is a quasi-disk. Thus, for a QED Jordan domain \(\Omega\), it is natural to consider the quasiconformal (qc) reflection constant \[ R(\Omega)=\inf\big\{K(f)\:\, f \text{ is a qc reflection}\big\}\tag{2} \] and the boundary dilatation \[ H(\Omega)=\inf\big\{K(f|_{\Omega-E}): f \text{ is a qc reflection and } E \text{ is a compact subset in } \Omega\big\}.\tag{3} \] Then [\textit{S. Yang}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 334, No. 1, 97--120 (1992; Zbl 0768.30015)] proved that \[ M(\Omega)\leq R(\Omega)+1,\tag{4} \] and conjectured that the above equality always holds, which turned out to be false however. To further investigate inequality (4), the reviewer [Tohoku Math. J. (2) 56, No. 3, 445--466 (2004; Zbl 1063.30017)] proved that, for a Jordan QED domain \(\Omega\) in \(\overline{\mathbb C}\), either there exists a pair of disjoint continua \(A\) and \(B\) in \(\overline{\Omega}\) for which the supremum in (1) is achieved or \( M(\Omega)\leq 2H(\Omega)\). In a previous paper [\textit{T. Cheng} and \textit{S. Yang}, Math. Z. 278, No. 3--4, 1195--1211 (2014; Zbl 1325.30020)], it was proved that the upper bound \(2H(\Omega)\) can be improved to be \(1+H(\Omega)\), which was conjectured by the reviewer [loc. cit.]. In this paper, the authors further extend this result to the case of a finitely-connected Jordan QED domain.