Removability, rigidity of circle domains and Koebe's conjecture (Q323730)

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. Koebe's classical theorem states that any finitely connected domain is conformally equivalent to a circle domain, unique up to Möbius equivalence. Koebe's result has been extended by He and Schramm for domains with at most countably many bounded components. Koebe conjectured that any domain in \(\hat{\mathbb C}\) is conformally equivalent to a circle domain. A circle domain \(\Omega\) in \(\hat{\mathbb C}\) is said to be conformally rigid if every conformal map of \(\Omega\) onto another circle domain is the restriction of a Möbius transformation. Similarly, \(\Omega\) is quasiconformally rigid if every quasiconformal map of \(\Omega\) onto another circle domain is the restriction of a quasiconformal map of the whole sphere. A compact set \(E\subset\mathbb C\) is said to be conformally removable if every homeomorphism of \(\hat{\mathbb C}\) which is conformal outside \(E\) is conformal everywhere, hence is a Möbius transformation. Similarly, \(E\) is quasiconformally removable if every homeomorphism of \(\hat{\mathbb C}\) which is quasiconformal outside \(E\) is quasiconformal everywhere. The following conjecture was proposed by He and Schramm. Rigidity Conjecture: Let \(\Omega\) be a circle domain. Then the following are equivalent. (A) \(\Omega\) is conformally rigid; (B) the boundary of \(\Omega\) is conformally removable; (C) any Cantor set contained in the boundary of \(\Omega\) is conformally removable. The author studies this conjecture and proves, as first main result, the following. Theorem 3. Let \(\Omega\) be a circle domain whose boundary is the union of countably many circles, Cantor sets and singletons. Then conditions (B) and (C) of the Rigidity Conjecture are equivalent. Theorem 4. Let \(E\) be a compact plane set of the form \[ E=(\cup_{j=1}^{\infty}\Gamma_j)\cup(\cup_{k=1}^{\infty}C_k)\cup(\cup_{l=1}^{\infty}\{z_l\}), \] where each \(\Gamma_j\) is a quasicircle, each \(C_k\) is a Cantor set and each \(z_l\) is a complex number. Then \(E\) is conformally removable if and only if every \(C_k\) is conformally removable. The second main result of the paper is related to the equivalence of conditions (A) and (B) in the Rigidity Conjecture. Theorem 5. A circle domain \(\Omega\) is conformally rigid if and only if it is quasiconformally rigid. The author applies a new technique involving David maps which are referred to as trans-quasiconformal deformations of Schottky groups.