Local decomposition of planar harmonic mappings (Q558499)

A harmonic mapping \(f\) of a domain \(D\) in \(\mathbb{C}\) can be written in the form \(f= h+\overline g\), where \(h\) and \(g\) are analytic functions on \(D\), which are unique up to additive constants (and may be multi-valued if \(D\) is not simply connected). Associated with \(f\) is its dilation \(\omega= g'/h'\) (which is always single-valued). \textit{P. Duren} and \textit{W. Hengartner} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 124, No. 4, 1191--1195 (1996; Zbl 0841.30019)] showed that a sense-preserving harmonic mapping \(f\) of \(D\) with dilation \(\omega\) has a decomposition \(f= F\circ\phi\) for some analytic function \(\phi\) on \(D\) and some sense-preserving univalent harmonic mapping of \(\phi(D)\) if and only if \(\omega(z_1)= w(z_2)\) wherever \(f(z_1)= f(z_2)\); moreover, if such a decomposition exists, then it is unique up to conformal mappings. The main result of the paper under review is a local version of this theorem. The most difficult part of the proof, the part dealing with sufficiency, uses a technique different from that of Duren and Hengartner. The paper includes illustrative examples concerning local decompositions near critical points.