The hyperbolic and quasihyperbolic metrics in convex regions (Q2367341)

The authors present characterizations of convex regions in \(\mathbb{R}^ n\) in terms of the hyperbolic metric \((n=2)\) and the quasihyperbolic metric \((n\geq 2)\). Let \(\Omega\) be a hyperbolic region in the complex plane and \(\lambda_ \Omega\) the density of the hyperbolic metric on \(\Omega\). The following are equivalent: (i) \(\Omega\) is convex, (ii) \(1/\lambda_ \Omega\) is concave and (iii) \(\log\lambda_ \Omega\) is convex. The proof is elementary using techniques from geometric function theory. The convexity of \(\log\lambda_ \Omega\) in a convex region was established earlier by several other authors in the context of partial differential equations by quite different methods. A perfect analog holds for the quasihyperbolic metric and convex regions in \(\mathbb{R}^ n\) for any \(n\geq 2\). For a region \(\Omega\neq\mathbb{R}^ n\), let \(\delta_ \Omega(w)\) denote the euclidean distance from \(w\) to \(\partial\Omega\); \(1/\delta_ \Omega\) is the density for the quasihyperbolic metric on \(\Omega\). The following are equivalent: (i) \(\Omega\) is convex, (ii) \(\delta_ \Omega\) is concave, (iii) \(\log(1/\delta_ \Omega)\) is convex on \(\Omega\).