The evolution of Loewner's differential equations (Q629641)

In this paper the authors are concerned with a survey of important results related to the Loewner differential equations and applications to the theory of univalent functions. The first section is an introductory part related to Loewner's research concerning the composition semigroups of conformal mappings and the further developments which arise from his main work. In the second section the authors present the slit radial Loewner equation, while in the third section there is presented the general radial Loewner equation and its applications to Loewner chains on the unit disc. The fourth section is devoted to the chordal equation; in the fifth section there are presented various ideas and results related to semigroups of holomorphic self-maps of the unit disc. Section 6 deals with a new concept related to a general approach of Loewner's theory on the unit disc based on semigroups and iteration theory is presented. This approach has been recently introduced and investigated by the last three authors and P. Gumenyuk. In the last section the authors present various applications of Loewner's theory to extremal problems, univalence criteria, Hele-Shaw flows, etc. Extensions of Loewner's theory to several complex variables are also discussed.