Convex shapes and harmonic caps (Q2398167)

Let \(P\) be a planar shape, that is, \(P\) is a compact, connected subset of \(\mathbb C\) that contains at least two points and has connected complement. Let \(\mu\) be a probability measure on \(\partial P\). The authors study the existence of a conformal metric \(\rho(P,\mu)=\rho(z)|dz|\) on the Riemann sphere \(\hat{\mathbb C}\) so that \(P\) embeds locally-isometrically into (\(\hat{\mathbb C},\rho\)) and the curvature distribution \(\omega_{\rho}=-\Delta\log\rho(z)\) is equal to the push-forward of \(4\pi\mu\) under the embedding. The complement \(\hat{P_{\mu}}\) of \(P\) in (\(\hat{\mathbb C},\rho\)) is called the cap of the pair \((P,\mu)\). When \(\mu\) is the harmonic measure of \(\hat{\mathbb C}\setminus P\) relative to \(\infty\), \(\hat{P_{\mu}}\) is called the harmonic cap. In Theorem 1.1 the authors prove that a Euclidean development of a harmonic cap \(\hat{P_{\mu}}\) is given by a locally univalent function \(g:\mathbb D\to\mathbb C\) defined by \[ g(z)=\int_{0}^{z}\Phi'(1/w)dw, \] where \(\mathbb D\) is the open unit disc and \(\Phi:\hat{\mathbb C}\setminus\overline{\mathbb D}\to\hat{\mathbb C}\setminus P\) is a conformal isomorphism with \(\Phi(\infty)=\infty\). In Theorem 1.2 they prove that, if \(P\) is bounded by a piecewise differentiable Jordan curve and \(\mu\) is a measure on \(\partial P\) such that the cap \(\hat{P_{\mu}}\) exists, then the boundary identification between \(\partial P\) and \(\partial\hat{P_{\mu}}\) that produces (\(\hat{\mathbb C},\rho\)) is given by \(s(t)\sim \hat{s}(t)\), where \[ s(t)=\int_{0}^{t}e^{i\alpha(x)}dx \] is a counterclockwise, unit-speed parametrization of \(\partial P\) and \[ \hat{s}(t)=\int_{0}^{t}e^{i(\alpha(x)-4\pi\mu(s(0,t]))}dx. \] Moreover, the authors characterize the cases where the metric \(\rho(P,\mu)\) exists for shapes \(P\) bounded by Jordan curves and arbitrary probability measures \(\mu\) on \(\partial P\). Finally, they provide examples of harmonic caps coming from connected filled Julia sets of polynomials with illustrating figures.