Binary forms, equiangular polygons and harmonic measure (Q5928658)

Let \(F=a_0X^n+a_1X^{n-1}Y+\cdots +a_nY^n\) be a binary form with complex coefficients. Define \(A_F\) to be the area of the region \(\{ (x,y)\in\mathbb{R}^2:|F(x,y)|\leq 1\}\) and let \(D(F)\) denote the discriminant of \(F\). Put \(Q(F)=|D(F)|^{1/n(n-1)}\cdot A_F\) and define \(M_n=\sup Q(F)\) where the supremum is taken over all binary forms in \({\mathbb{C}}[X,Y]\) of degree \(n\). One has \(Q(\lambda F_T)=Q(F)\) for \(\lambda\in{\mathbb{C}}^*\), \(T\in GL_2({\mathbb{R}})\), where \(F_T(X,Y)=F(aX+bY,cX+dY)\) for \(T=\left(\begin{smallmatrix} a &b\\ c &d\end{smallmatrix} \right)\). In two earlier papers, viz. [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 347, 4959-4983 (1995; Zbl 0857.11014), Compos. Math. 92, 115-131 (1994; Zbl 0816.11026)], the first author proved that \(\infty >M_3> M_4> M_5>\cdots\) and that for each \(n\geq 3\), \(M_n\) is attained by a binary form \(F\) which factors into linear factors over \({\mathbb{R}}\). Further, he proved that \(M_3=3B(1/3,1/3)\approx 15.90\) and \(M_4=2^{7/6}B(1/4,1/2)\approx 11.77\) where \(B(x,y)\) denotes the usual Beta-function. Lastly, he conjectured that \(M_n=Q(F_n^*)\) for \(n\geq 5\), where \(F_n^*(X,Y)=\prod_{k=1}^n (X\sin (k\pi /n)-Y\cos (k\pi /n))\). In the present paper, the authors give some motivation for this and show the relation with an extremal problem for equiangular polygons. Using the Schwarz-Christoffel correspondence, they attach to every binary form \(F\in{\mathbb{C}}[X,Y]\) of degree \(n\) factoring completely over \({\mathbb{R}}\) an \(n\)-sided equiangular polygon \(P_F\). This correspondence is such that if \(T\in GL_2({\mathbb{R}})\) then \(P_{F_T}\) is similar to \(P_F\), while if \(T\in SL_2({\mathbb{R}})\) then \(P_{F_T}\) is congruent to \(P_F\). Moreover, every \(n\)-sided equiangular polygon comes from a binary form as above. The authors show that \(A_F\) is equal to the perimeter of \(P_F\), while \(D(F)\) is equal to a quantity depending on the harmonic radius of \(P_F\) and the harmonic measures of the sides of \(P_F\) (defined in the paper). Thus determining \(M_n\) is equivalent to determine the maximum of some real function \(\mu_n\) on the set of equiangular polygons. The authors show that the conjecture mentioned above is equivalent to the statement that \(\mu_n(P)\) is maximal precisely when \(P\) is equilateral.