Univalent harmonic exterior and ring mappings (Q807766)

Let \(\Omega\) be a simple connected domain in the extended plane, containing \(\infty\), and \(\Delta:=\{z:| z| >1\}\). A harmonic, orientation preserving univalent function in \(\Delta\) keeping \(\infty\) fixed satisfies the equation \(\bar f_{\bar z}=a(z)f_ z\), with a analytic in \(\Delta\), \(| a(z)| <1\), \(z\in \Delta\). The authors study existence and uniqueness theorems for f mapping \(\Delta\) onto \(\Omega\) in terms of a. There first result is that if \(\Omega ={\bar {\mathbb{C}}}\setminus \{p\}\), \(p\in {\mathbb{C}}\), then f exists iff \[ a(z)=\frac{A}{\bar A}\frac{c+(1/z)d+(1/z)}{1+(\bar c/z)1+(\bar d/z)}, \] with \(| c| <1\), \(| d| \leq 1\), and that these a do not admit solutions f satisfying \(f_ z(\infty)/A>0\) for other domains \(\Omega\). In the other cases (assuming that \(\partial \Omega\) is locally connected) solutions f exist with f(\(\Delta\))\(\subset \Omega\) and the cluster sets \(C(f,e^{it})\) form either a singleton on \(\partial \Omega\) or a line segment in \(\Omega\cup \partial \Omega\) joining two points of the boundary. If \({\mathbb{C}}\setminus \Omega\) is convex and \(\sup | a(z)| <1\) then f maps \(\Delta\) onto \(\Omega\). Uniqueness theorems are established for some types of domains \(\Omega\). The paper closes with some related results for ring domains, including negative answers to two problems of J. C. C. Nitsche concerning the representation and properties of harmonic mappings of ring domains onto ring domains.