Condenser capacity under multivalent holomorphic functions (Q2377112)

A condenser in the complex plane \(\mathbb C\) is a pair \((D,K)\), where \(D\) is a proper subdomain of \(\mathbb C\) and \(K\) is a compact subset of \(D\). The capacity of \((D,K)\) is \[ \text{Cap}\,(D,K)=\int_{D\setminus K} |\nabla h|^2, \] where \(h\) is the harmonic function in \(D\setminus K\) with boundary values \(1\) on \(\partial K\) and \(0\) on \(\partial D\). It is known that if \(f\) is a nonconstant holomorphic function on \(D\), then \[ \text{Cap}\,(f(D),f(K))\leq \text{Cap}\,(D,K), \] with equality if and only if \(f\) is conformal. The authors prove a generalization of this inequality that takes into account the valency of \(f\). Equality occurs in their inequality if and only if \(f\) has finite constant valency. As a corollary, they obtain a generalization of an inequality of Martio and Väisälä on the behavior of the capacity of condensers under planar quisiregular mappings. The main tool in the proofs is an integral expression for the capacity that involves the Green function of \(D\).