Rigidity theorems for circle domains (Q2304170)

The authors show that circle domains satisfying the so-called quasihyperbolic condition are conformally rigid. A domain \(\Omega\) in the Riemann sphere \(\hat{\mathbb C}\) is a circle domain if every connected component of its boundary is either a circle or a point. A circle domain \(\Omega\subset\hat{\mathbb C}\) is conformally rigid if every conformal map from \(\Omega\) onto another circle domain is the restriction of a Möbius transformation. A compact set \(E\subset\hat{\mathbb C}\) is conformally removable if every homeomorphism of \(\hat{\mathbb C}\) that is conformal outside \(E\) is conformal everywhere. Given a domain \(D\subset\mathbb C\), \(D\neq\mathbb C\), and \(x\in D\), define \(\delta_D(x):=\text{dist}(x,\partial D)\). The quasihyperbolic distance \(k_D(x_1,x_2)\) between two points \(x_1,x_2\in D\) is given by \[k_D(x_1,x_2)=\inf_{\gamma}\int\frac{1}{\delta_D(x)}ds,\] where the infimum is taken over all rectifiable paths \(\gamma\subset D\) connecting \(x_1\) and \(x_2\). The main theorem is the following rigidity result. Theorem 1.6. Let \(\Omega\subset\hat{\mathbb C}\) be a circle domain, \(\infty\in\Omega\). Let \(B(0,R)\subset\mathbb C\) be an open ball that contains all complementary components of \(\Omega\). Suppose that, for a point \(x_0\in B(0,R)\cap\Omega\), \[\int_{B(0,R)\cap\Omega}k(x,x_0)^2dx<\infty,\] where \(k(\cdot,\cdot)\) denotes the quasihyperbolic distance in \(B(0,R)\cap\Omega\). Then \(\Omega\) is conformally rigid. The condition of Theorem 1.6 is satisfied, in particular, for John domains and Hölder domains. The domain \(D\) is a Hölder domain if \(D\) is the image of the unit disk \(\mathbb D=\{z\in\mathbb C:|z|<1\}\) under a conformal map \(f\) which is Hölder continuous in the closure of \(\mathbb D\) for some exponent \(\alpha\in(0,1]\). The bounded simply connected domain \(D\) is a John domain if, for every rectilinear crosscut \([a,b]\) of \(D\), \(\text{diam}\,H\leq M|a-b|\) holds for one of two components \(H\) of \(D\setminus[a,b]\) with a suitable \(M>0\). Theorem 1.6 yields the next corollary. Corollary 1.7. Hölder circle domains are all conformally rigid. In particular, John circle domains are conformally rigid.