Extremal quasiconformality vs bounded rational approximation (Q2300940)

In the paper, geometric function theory is connected with the rational approximation problem for holomorphic functions. For a quasicircle \(L\) on \(\hat{\mathbb C}=\mathbb C\cup\{\infty\}\) and the interior domain \(D\), let \(\mathbf{B}_p(D)\) be the Banach space of holomorphic functions \(\varphi\) and norms \(\|\varphi\|_{\mathbf{B}_p}=\sup_D\lambda_D(z)^{-p}|\varphi(z)|\), where \(\lambda_D(z)|dz|\) is the hyperbolic metric of \(D\) with Gaussian curvature (-4), and \(p\geq2\) is an integer. The author starts with the following theorem. Theorem 1. Let \(D\subset\hat{\mathbb C}\) be a domain with quasiconformal boundary \(L\). Then, for any function \(\varphi\in\mathbf{B}_p(D)\), there exists a sequence of rational functions with poles of order two on \(L\) of the form \[r_n(z)=\sum_{j=1}^n\frac{c_j}{(z-a_j)^2},\;\;\;\sum_{j=1}^n|c_j|>0,\] such that \(\lim_{n\to\infty}\|r_n-\varphi\|_{\mathbf{B}_{p+1}(D)}=0\). In the case of the half-plane \(\mathbb H=\{z\in\mathbb C:\text{Im}\,z>0\}\) (or the disk) Theorem 1 is strengthened as follows. Theorem 2. For any \(\varphi\in\mathbf{B}_p(\mathbb H)\), there exists a sequence of rational functions of Theorem 1 with real poles \(a_j\) and real coefficients \(c_j\), convergent to \(\varphi\) in \(\mathbf{B}_{p+1}(\mathbb H)\). The Schwarzian derivative for univalent functions \(w\) on \(\mathbb H\) is denoted by \[S_w(z)=\left(\frac{w''(z)}{w'(z)}\right)'-\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{w''(z)}{w'(z)}\right)^2.\] The author demonstrates the effect expressed by the following theorem. Theorem 3. For any simply connected domain \(D\subset\hat{\mathbb C}\) with quasiconformal boundary \(L\), whose conformal mapping function \(g_D:\mathbb H\to D\) satisfies \(\|S_{g_D}\|_{\mathbf{B}_2}<1/2\), the set of functions \(\varphi\in\mathbf{B}_2(D)\) approximated in \(\mathbf{B}_2\) norm by general rational functions with poles of order two on \(L\), \[r_n(z)=\sum_{j=1}^n\frac{c_j}{(z-a_j)^2}+\sum_{j=1}^n\frac{c_j'}{z-a_j},\;\;\;\sum_{j=1}^n|c_j|>0,\] is nowhere dense in the space \(\mathbf{B}_2(D)\). This is a consequence of the profound result which states that, under the conditions of Theorem 3, there exists a constant \(c_0>0\) so that for any rational function \(r_n\) of Theorem 3 with \(\|r_n\|_{\mathbf{B}_2(D)}<c_0\), we have the equalities \(\kappa_D(w)=k(w)=\|r_n\|_{\mathbf{B}_2(D)}\), where \(\kappa_D(w)\) and \(k(w)\) denote the Grunsky and Teichmüller norms of the appropriately normalized univalent solution \(w:D\to\hat{\mathbb C}\) of the Schwarzian equation \(S_f=r_n\). This result is extended to arbitrary meromorphic functions \(\varphi\) on \(\mathbb C\) having poles of order two which are located on a quasicircle \(L\) passing through the infinite point and accumulate to this point.