No label defined (Q4950475)

This is a very interesting and well-written thesis. The author considers the average growth of the negative powers of the derivative of a normalized conformal map \(f\) of the unit disk into the plane. Perhaps the most famous open problem in the area is the Brennan conjecture. The author proposes the stronger conjecture that \[ \int_{|z|= r}|f'(z)|^{-2}|dz|\qquad (0< r< 1)\tag{\(*\)} \] is maximized by the Koebe function and presents several supporting arguments. For instance, he proves that the Koebe function gives a local maximum in the family \(S\). Then he shows that the Taylor coefficients of \(f'{}^{-p}\) up to the index \(2p+1\) are maximized by the Koebe function; the proof uses the deBranges method and is computer-assisted. This gives another support for the conjecture \((*)\) because, as he proves, the Brennan conjecture can be reformulated in terms of the growth of these Taylor coefficients. Another reformulation is in terms of the beta-numbers of Carleson and Makarov. The author studies these numbers in detail, in particular their first and second variation which lead to a quadratic differential. He also considers e.g. connection of the beta-numbers to the angular derivative. Finally, he studies higher Schwarzian derivatives and gets the presently best estimate for the exponent on the right-hand side in \((*)\), namely 1.547 instead of the conjectured exponent \(1\).