In
complex analysis
Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates Function (mathematics), functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathemati ...
, a branch of
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
, the Koebe 1/4 theorem states the following:
Koebe Quarter Theorem. The image of an injective analytic function from the unit disk
In mathematics, the open unit disk (or disc) around ''P'' (where ''P'' is a given point in the plane), is the set of points whose distance from ''P'' is less than 1:
:D_1(P) = \.\,
The closed unit disk around ''P'' is the set of points whose di ...
onto a subset
In mathematics, Set (mathematics), set ''A'' is a subset of a set ''B'' if all Element (mathematics), elements of ''A'' are also elements of ''B''; ''B'' is then a superset of ''A''. It is possible for ''A'' and ''B'' to be equal; if they are ...
of the complex plane
In mathematics, the complex plane is the plane formed by the complex numbers, with a Cartesian coordinate system such that the -axis, called the real axis, is formed by the real numbers, and the -axis, called the imaginary axis, is formed by the ...
contains the disk whose center is and whose radius is .
The theorem is named after
Paul Koebe
Paul Koebe (15 February 1882 – 6 August 1945) was a 20th-century German mathematician. His work dealt exclusively with the complex numbers, his most important results being on the uniformization of Riemann surfaces in a series of four papers in ...
, who conjectured the result in 1907. The theorem was proven by
Ludwig Bieberbach
Ludwig Georg Elias Moses Bieberbach (; 4 December 1886 – 1 September 1982) was a German mathematician and Nazi.
Biography
Born in Goddelau, near Darmstadt, he studied at Heidelberg and under Felix Klein at Göttingen, receiving his doctorate ...
in 1916. The example of the Koebe function shows that the constant
in the theorem cannot be improved (increased).
A related result is the
Schwarz lemma
In mathematics, the Schwarz lemma, named after Hermann Amandus Schwarz, is a result in complex analysis about holomorphic functions from the open unit disk to itself. The lemma is less celebrated than deeper theorems, such as the Riemann mapping ...
, and a notion related to both is
conformal radius In mathematics, the conformal radius is a way to measure the size of a simply connected planar domain ''D'' viewed from a point ''z'' in it. As opposed to notions using Euclidean distance (say, the radius of the largest inscribed disk with center '' ...
.
Grönwall's area theorem
Suppose that
:
is univalent in
. Then
:
In fact, if
, the complement of the image of the disk
is a bounded domain
. Its area is given by
:
Since the area is positive, the result follows by letting
decrease to
. The above proof shows equality holds if and only if the complement of the image of
has zero area, i.e.
Lebesgue measure
In measure theory, a branch of mathematics, the Lebesgue measure, named after French mathematician Henri Lebesgue, is the standard way of assigning a measure to subsets of ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space. For ''n'' = 1, 2, or 3, it coincides wit ...
zero.
This result was proved in 1914 by the Swedish mathematician
Thomas Hakon Grönwall
Thomas Hakon Grönwall or Thomas Hakon Gronwall (January 16, 1877 in Dylta bruk, Sweden – May 9, 1932 in New York City, New York) was a Swedish mathematician. He studied at the University College of Stockholm and Uppsala University and complete ...
.
Koebe function
The Koebe function is defined by
:
Application of the theorem to this function shows that the constant
in the theorem cannot be improved, as the image domain
does not contain the point
and so cannot contain any disk centred at
with radius larger than
.
The rotated Koebe function is
:
with
a complex number of
absolute value
In mathematics, the absolute value or modulus of a real number x, is the non-negative value without regard to its sign. Namely, , x, =x if is a positive number, and , x, =-x if x is negative (in which case negating x makes -x positive), an ...
. The Koebe function and its rotations are ''
schlicht'': that is,
univalent (analytic and
one-to-one) and satisfying
and
.
Bieberbach's coefficient inequality for univalent functions
Let
:
be univalent in
. Then
:
This follows by applying Gronwall's area theorem to the odd univalent function
:
Equality holds if and only if
is a rotated Koebe function.
This result was proved by
Ludwig Bieberbach
Ludwig Georg Elias Moses Bieberbach (; 4 December 1886 – 1 September 1982) was a German mathematician and Nazi.
Biography
Born in Goddelau, near Darmstadt, he studied at Heidelberg and under Felix Klein at Göttingen, receiving his doctorate ...
in 1916 and provided the basis for his
celebrated conjecture that
, proved in 1985 by
Louis de Branges
Louis de Branges de Bourcia (born August 21, 1932) is a French-American mathematician. He is the Edward C. Elliott Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He is best known for proving the long-stan ...
.
Proof of quarter theorem
Applying an affine map, it can be assumed that
:
so that
:
If
is not in
, then
:
is univalent in
.
Applying the coefficient inequality to
and
gives
:
so that
:
Koebe distortion theorem
The Koebe distortion theorem gives a series of bounds for a univalent function and its derivative. It is a direct consequence of Bieberbach's inequality for the second coefficient and the Koebe quarter theorem.
Let
be a univalent function on
normalized so that
and
and let
. Then
:
:
:
with equality if and only if
is a Koebe function
:
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*{{cite book, last=Rudin , first=Walter , authorlink=Walter Rudin , year=1987 , title=Real and Complex Analysis , series=Series in Higher Mathematics , publisher=McGraw-Hill , edition=3 , isbn=0-07-054234-1 , mr=924157
External links
* Koebe 1/4 theorem a
PlanetMath
Theorems in complex analysis