MAT 627, Topics in Complex Analysis: quasiconformal mappings

Spring 2025

Christopher Bishop

Distinguished Professor,
Department of Mathematics
Stony Brook University

Office: 4-112 Mathematics Building
Phone: (631)-632-8274
Dept. Phone: (631)-632-8290
FAX: (631)-632-7631
Homepage

Summary:

This is an introduction to quasiconformal mappings (mostly on planar domains, though we may mention higher dimensions and metric spaces). The first few weeks will given an introduction to conform modulus and extermal length, and then will focus on the equivalence of various definitions of QC mappings. After this, I will give a proof of the measureable Riemann mapping theroem (MRMT). I will also plan to discuss conformal welding, David homeomorphisms, distortion of measure and dimension under QC maps, and conformal removability. If time permits, I may discuss applications of MRMT to constructing holomorphic functions and to complex dynamics.

Time and place

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 to 1:50. Physics P-116. Although we meet in person, I will try to put the meetings on Zoom and make the recordings available within a few days. If you would like to join the class remotely, contact me for the Zoom information.

Office hours:

Tue 2-3:30, Thur 11-12:30. You can always email me a question, or contact me to set up an appointment for an in-person or Zoom meeting. If you can find me in my office, I am usually happy to speak with you.

Slides:

I will try to produce PDF slides to persent during class. These will be posted here, usually grouped by topic and covering several lectures.

First day: Brief introduction to quasiconformal mappings and some of the topics I hope to cover.

Rapid review of complex analysis: concise review of material from the first year complex analysis course that will be useful in this class: conformal maps, Riemann mapping theorem, the uniformization theorem.

Extremal length and conformal modulus: definition and basic properties of conformal modulus, an extremal length proof of Koebe 1/4-theorem.

Logartihmic capacity: definition and basic properties of log-capacity. Pfluger's theorem, harmonic measure estimates.

Geometric definition of QC maps: definition of QC maps in terms of modulus, compactness of K-QC maps, Gehring-Hayman theorem, localness of QC maps, 1-QC maps are conformal, quasicircles, quasisymmetric maps, removable sets.

Analytic definition of QC maps: QC maps are differentiable a.e., derivatives in L^p, measurable Riemann mapping theorem, holomoprhic dependence

Distortion of area and dimension: Astala's theorems on distortion of area and Hausdorff dimension, Smirnov's k^2 theorem for quaislines.

Recordings:

Class recordings are posted HERE

Books:

We will not follow any particular book, but in the first part of the course I plan to discuss basic material found in several sources, such as Ahlfors' "Lectures on Quasiconformal Mappings". This is short, dense a book that covers a lot of material quickly, and I will try to cover some of the material somewhat more verbosely than Ahlfors does. Below is a list of relevant books on QC mappings (the links are mostly to publisher webpages).

Quasiconformal Mappings (incomplete) lecure notes by Christopher Bishop. I will convert these notes into lecture slides for the course, and (I hope) eventually update the lecture notes based on the lectures.

Complex Analysis by Don Marshall. This was the textbook for MAT 536 last Spring (a prerequisite for this class).

Geometric Function Theory by Tom Carroll. This book covers in detail much about conformal maps that I will review rapidly in the first few lectures. Much of the same material was covered in MAT 536 last Spring, when we used Don Marshall's textbook.

Conformal Maps and Geometry by Dmitry Beliaev. World Scientific, 2020. Link is to first 60 pages from author's website.

Fractals in Probability and Analysis by Christopher Bishop and Yuval Peres. Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Real Analysis, 2nd edition by B.S. Bruckner, J.B. Bruckner and A.M. Thomson, ClassicalRealAnalysis.com, 2008.

Lectures on Quasiconformal mappings by Lars Ahlfors. Very consise introduction to most of the main topics we will discuss.

Quasiconformal mappings in the plane by Olli Lehto and Kalle Virtanen

Conformal Welding by David Hamilton, Chapter 4 of Handbook of Complex analysis (see next entry), 2002.

Handbook of Complex Analysis edited by Reiner Kuhnau, North-Holland, 2002.

Elliptic Partial Differential Equations and Quasiconformal Mappings in the Plane by Kari Astala, Tadeusz Iwaniec, and Gaven Martin

Teichmüller Theory and Applications to Geometry, Topology, and Dynamics, Vol. 1: Teichmuller Theory by John Hubbard

Quasiconformal Maps and Teichmüller Theory by Alastair Fletcher and Vladimir Markovic

The Ubiquitous Quasidisk by Fred Gehring and Kari Hag, AMS Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol 184, 2012.

Assorted papers:

There are many, many papers on quasiconformal maps, but below are a few of my personal favorites. If time permits aftger covering the basic properties of QC mappings, I will try to discuss a few of these. Let me know if there are other papers you would like me to insert here.

What is a quasiconformal map? by Juha Heinonen. Notices of the AMS, vol 53, no 11, pages 1334-1335.

A historical survey of quasiconformal mappings by Olli Lehto the AMS, vol 53, no 11, 1984, pages 1334-1335.

Quasiconformal Mappings, with applications to differnetial equations, function theory and topology by Lipman Bers, Bull, AMS vol 83 No 6, Nov 1977, 1083--1100.

Quasiconformal Mpping by Seppo Rickman, Annales Academia Scientiarum Fennica, Series A. I. Mathematica Volumen L3, 1988, 371-385.

Area distortion of quasiconformal mappings by Kari Astala, Acta Math 173(1994) 37-60.

On the area distortion by quasiconformal mappings by A. Eremenko and D.H. Hamilton. PAMS 123(1995) 2793-2797.

On a holder constant in the theory of quasiconformal mappings by Istvan Prause, Computational Methods and Function Theory (CMFT), 2014, vol 14, page 483-486.

Area distortion under quasiconformal mappings, by F.W. Gehring and E. Reich, Annals Acad. Sci. Fenn. vol 388, 1966..

Removability theorems for Sobolev functions and quasiconformal mappings, by P.W. Jones and S.K. Smironov, Ark. Mat. 38(2000), 263-279.

Non-removability of the Sierpinksi gasket by D. Ntalampekos, Invent. Math., 216(2019), 519-595.

On removable sets for holomorphic functions by M. Younsi, EMS 2(2015), 219-254 .

Conformal removability is hard by C.J. Bishop, preprint.

Constructing entire functions by quasiconformal folding by C.J. Bishop, Acta Math 214(2015) 1-60..

Conformal welding and Koebe's theorem , by C.J. Bishop, Annals Math, 166(2007), 613-656 .

Models for the Eremenko-Lyubich class, by C.J. Bishop, JLMS 92(2015), 202-221 .

Dimensions of quasicircles by S.K. Smirnov, Acta Math. 205(2010) 189-197.

Hausdorff measure of quasicircles by I.Prause, X. Tolsa and I. Uriarte-Tuero, Adv. in Math., 229(2012), 1313-1228.

Quasisymmetric dimension distortion of Ahlfors regular subsets of a metric space . C.J. Bishop, H.Hakobyan and M. Williams, GAFA 26(2016), 379-421.

Metric definition of quasiconformality and exceptional sets by D. Ntalampekos, Math. Ann., 389(2024), 3231-3253.

Definitions of Quasiconformality by J. Heinonen and P. Koskela, Invent. Math., 120(1995) 61-79.

Solutions de L'equation de Beltrami avec |mu| =1 by Guy David, AASF Series A.I. Mathematica Vol 13, 1988, 25-70.

The Theory of Quasiconformal Mappings in Higher Dimensions, I by Gavin Martin, Handbook of Teichmüller theory. Vol. IV, 619–677, IRMA Lect. Math. Theor. Phys., 19, Eur. Math. Soc., Zürich, 2014.

Characterizations of Quasidisks by Fred Gehring, Banach Center Publications, vol 48, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, 1999.

Conformal dimension via $p$-resistance : Sierpinksi carpet by Jaroslaw Kwapisz, AASF, vol 45, 2020, 3-51.

On the distortion of boundary sets under conformal mappings by N.G. Makarov, Proc. London Math. Soc. (3) 51 (1985), no. 2, 369–384.

Hausdorff dimension of harmonic measures in the plane by Peter Jones and Tom Wolff, Acta Math. 161 (1988), no. 1-2, 131–144.

On the Hausdorff dimension of harmonic measure in higher dimension. by Jean Bourgain, Invent. Math. 87 (1987), no. 3, 477–483.

Bloch functions, asymptotic variance, and geometric zero packing. by Haaken Hedenmalm, American Journal of Mathematics, Volume 142, Number 1, February 2020, pp. 267-321

Quasicircles of dimension $1 + k^2$ do not exist by Oleg Ivrii, preprint 2017.

Definitions of quasiconformality by Juha Heinonen and Pekka Koskela, Invent. math. 120, 61-79 (1995).

Quasiconformal maps in metric spaces with controlled geometry by Juha Heinonen and Pekka Koskela, Acta Math., 181 (1998), 1–61.

Tentative Schedule:

I will update this as the semester proceeds.

        Tue, Jan 28: first day, introduction to course
        Thur, Jan 30: review of complex analysis, Mobius transformations, normal families, Riemann mapping thm
        Tue, Feb 4: Caratheodory's theorem, the uniformization theorem
        Thur, Feb 6: Defn of conformal modulus and extremal length, basic properties
        Tue, Feb 11:
        Thur, Feb 13:
        Tue, Feb 18:
        Thur, Feb 20:
        Tue, Feb 25:
        Thur, Feb 27:
        Tue, Mar 4:
        Thur, Mar 6:
        Tue, Mar 11:
        Thur, Mar 13:
        Tue, Mar 18: No class, Spring Break
        Thur, Mar 20: No class, Spring Break
        Tue, Mar 25:
        Thur, Mar 27:
        Tue, Apr 1:
        Thur, Apr 3:
        Tue, Apr 8:
        Thur, Apr 10:
        Tue, Apr 15:
        Thur, Apr 17:
        Tue, Apr 22:
        Thur, Apr 24:
        Tue, Apr 29:
        Thur, May 1:
        Tue, May 6:
        Thur, May 8: last day

LaTex:

The not too short introduction to LaTex

Biographies:

Mathematical biographies at the St. Andrews MacTutor website.

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Send me email at: bishop at math.sunysb.edu