Quasiconformal harmonic mappings and generalizations (Q648523)

This is a survey of recent results concerning the global continuity of quasiconformal harmonic maps between planar domains. These maps form an interesting class which includes, as a special case, conformal maps. After \textit{M. Pavlović} [``Boundary correspondence under harmonic quasiconformal homeomorphisms of the unit disk'', Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn., Math. 27, No. 2, 365--372 (2002; Zbl 1017.30014)] proved that every quasiconformal harmonic map of a disk onto itself is bi-Lipschitz, there has been an extensive investigation of the relations between quasiconformality, harmonicity, Lipschitz conditions, and boundary smoothness of planar domains. The paper presents an overview of the recent results in this direction, many of which are due to the authors and their collaborators. For example, Theorem 3.5 (due to \textit{V. Božin} and the second author, [``Quasiconformal harmonic mappings between Jordan domains'', to appear]) is as follows. Let \(\Omega\) and \(\Omega_1\) be Jordan domains with \(C^{1,\mu}\) smooth boundary, \(\mu\in (0,1)\). Then every harmonic quasiconformal map of \(\Omega\) onto \(\Omega_1\) is bi-Lipschitz. To a large extent, the interest in planar harmonic maps stems from their connection to minimal surfaces \(\Sigma\subset \mathbb R^3\). Indeed, the composition of a conformal parametrization of \(\Sigma\) with the orthogonal projection onto the \(xy\)-plane is a planar harmonic map, and, conversely, many planar harmonic maps can be lifted to a minimal surface. Quasiconformal harmonic maps \(f: \Omega\to\Omega_1\) arise from minimal surfaces \(\Sigma\) that are Lipschitz graphs over \(\Omega_1\). Thus, the bi-Lipschitz property of \(f\) indicates that the conformal parametrization of such minimal surface \(\Sigma\) is bi-Lipschitz as well. A reader interested in the interplay of the geometry of minimal surfaces and the analysis of planar harmonic maps is invited to explore the book [Harmonic mappings in the plane. Cambridge Tracts in Mathematics 156. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2004; Zbl 1055.31001)] by \textit{P. Duren}.