Deformations of annuli with smallest mean distortion (Q982272)

A homeomorphism \(f: \Omega\to\Omega'\) between planar domains has finite distortion if \(f\in W^{1,1}_{\text{loc}}(\Omega,\Omega')\), and \(|f_{\overline z}|\leq k(z)|f_z|\) with \(0\leq k(z)< 1\) a.e. in \(\Omega\). The function \[ K(z,f)= {|f_z|^2+ |f_{\overline z}|^2\over |f_z|^2- |f_{\overline z}|^2} \] is called the distortion function of \(f\). Notice that \(K(z,f)\geq 1\), and we have the equality \(K(z,f)\equiv 1\) if and only if \(f\) is conformal (Looman-Menchoff theorem). For the annuli \(\Omega= \{z: r<|z|< R\}\) and \(\Omega'= \{z: r'<|z|< R'\}\) denote by \(J(\Omega,\Omega')\) the family of all normalized homeomorphisms \(f: \Omega\to\Omega'\) of finite distortion. Normalized means here that \(|f(z)|=r'\) for \(|z|= r\) and \(|f(z)|= R'\) for \(|z|= R\). The main goal of the paper is to determine the homeomorphisms \(f\in J(\Omega,\Omega')\) which minimize the functionals \[ I_f= {1\over \text{area}(\Omega)} \iint_\Omega K(z,f)\,dm(z) \] and \[ K^*_f= {1\over \mu\text{-area}(\Omega)} \iint_\Omega K(z,f)\,d\mu(z). \] Here, \(dm\) is the Lebesgue measure and \(d\mu(z)= d m(z)\big/ |z|^2\). We give here only the statement concerning \(K^*_f\). Let \(\text{Mod}(\Omega)\) be the conformal radius of \(\Omega\) defined by \[ \text{Mod}(\Omega)= 2\pi\log{R\over r}. \] Theorem 1. Among all mappings \(f\in J(\Omega,\Omega')\), the infimum of \(K^*_f\) is attained at the power function \[ f^\alpha(z)= r'r^{-\alpha}|z|^{\alpha- 1}z,\quad\text{where}\quad\alpha= {\text{Mod}(\Omega')\over \text{Mod}(\Omega)}. \] Furthermore, \[ {1\over\mu(\Omega)} \iint_\Omega K(z,f^\alpha)\,d\mu(z)= {1\over 2}\Biggl[{\text{Mod}(\Omega')\over \text{Mod}(\Omega)}+ {\text{Mod}(\Omega)\over \text{Mod}(\Omega')}\Biggr]= {1\over 2}\Biggl(\alpha+{1\over\alpha}\Biggr). \] An analogous, but more subtle statement for \(K_f\) is also proved.