Uniformization of Sierpiński carpets in the plane (Q658959)

A Jordan curve \(\gamma\) in \(\overline{\mathbb{C}} = \mathbb{C} \cup \{\infty \}\) is a \(k\)-quasicircle, \(k \geq 1\), if \(\mathrm{diam} \gamma(x, y) \leq k \sigma(x,y)\). Here, \(\sigma\) denotes the chordal distance in \(\overline{\mathbb{C}}\) and \(\gamma(x, y)\) stands for the arc between \(x\) and \(y\) with smaller diameter. If \(I\) is a countable collection of pairwise disjoint \(k\)-quasicircles \(\{ \gamma_i \}\), then, in general, there is no quasiconformal map \(f : \overline{\mathbb{C}} \rightarrow \overline{\mathbb{C}}\) which sends each \( \gamma_i \) to a circle. The right condition for the purpose is `uniform relative separation' which means that there is \(s > 0\) such that \(d(\gamma_i , \gamma_j)/ \min(\mathrm{diam} \gamma_i , \mathrm{diam}\gamma_j) \geq s\) whenever \(i,j \in I\), \(i \neq j\); as the author shows, in this case the claim holds. The result can be regarded as a variant of the Koebe uniformization theorem. If \(\{ D_i : i \in S \}\) is the collection of disjoint closed Jordan regions with \(\partial D_i = \gamma_i\), then the meaningful uniqueness question concerns the uniqueness of \(f\) on the complementary set \(T = \overline{\mathbb{C}} \setminus \bigcup \mathrm{int} D_i\). If \(T\) has non-empty interior, then \(f\) cannot be unique, but in the opposite case \(f\) is unique up to post-composition with a Möbius transformation [the author, \textit{B. Kleiner} and \textit{S. Merenkov}, Am. J. Math. 131, No. 2, 409--443 (2009; Zbl 1168.30005)]. This enables the author to study the uniformization of Sierpinski carpets by round Sierpinski carpets. The studies are motivated by a problem concerning the boundary of a Gromov hyperbolic group at infinity, see [\textit{M. Kapovich} and \textit{B. Kleiner}, Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 33, No. 5, 647--669 (2000; Zbl 0989.20031)]; the author shows that if the boundary of a Gromov hyperbolic group at infinity is a Sierpinski carpet, then the carpet consists of uniformly separeted quasicircles. In the paper several new methods, like the carpet modulus, are employed.