Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-perturbation-methods-and-applied-complex-variables-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/b/5/i/solution

Near a prevertex of a Schwarz-Christoffel map , a conformal map to an interior angle has local form
Its derivative therefore has the factor . On each real interval between prevertex, the argument of the product of these factors is constant, so its integral traces a straight polygon side. Passing a prevertex of a Schwarz-Christoffel map changes the argument by the prescribed exterior angle . Thus
has exactly the required straight sides and corner angles, with the branches chosen in the upper half-plane. Equivalently has simple poles ; removing them leaves the constant normalization determined by behavior at infinity. The additive integration constant translates the polygon and rotates and scales it. This is the Schwarz-Christoffel formula.
The automorphisms of the upper half-plane are real Möbius transformations with positive determinant, modulo a common nonzero scalar. They have three real degrees of freedom, so three prevertex of a Schwarz-Christoffel map positions may be assigned independently. The remaining positions are constrained by the side-length ratios.
If , omit its finite factor:
Since , the derivative behaves like at infinity; in the coordinate , this is exactly the required corner exponent there. Thus the missing angle is encoded by behavior at infinity.

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