Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-complex-analysis-conformal-maps-and-geometry-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/2/a/solution

By conformal invariance of extremal length, work first on . For a conformal metric , let be the infimum of lengths of curves joining the two circles, and its area. Each radial segment is admissible, so the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives, for every angle,
Integrating in angle gives . Conversely, has shortest joining length and area , attaining the bound. Thus the conformal modulus of an annulus gives
The second formula is the pullback of by . Pullback preserves curve lengths and metric area, so every displayed positive multiple is an extremal metric in .

New to topics? Read the docs here!