Conformal modulus of a quadrilateral 2026-10-25
Map a conformal quadrilateral to a rectangle of width and height , with the chosen opposite boundary arcs mapped to its vertical sides. Their extremal length is ; the other pair has extremal length . The constant conformal metric is extremal. For an arbitrary density, average horizontal joining lengths over height and apply the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality to obtain , proving the upper bound. Vertical joining segments prove the dual formula. Conformal invariance of extremal length transports both equalities back to the quadrilateral.
Regard the upper half-disc, with cyclic boundary vertices , as a conformal quadrilateral. Map it to a rectangle of width and height , so the boundary arcs and become its vertical sides. The rectangle formulas for the conformal modulus of a quadrilateral giveThe remaining two boundary arcs, and the semicircle, become the horizontal sides. Thus these are precisely the dual joining families in the same quadrilateral.
Use the simply connected domain shown in the diagram. A Riemann mapping theorem map followed by an automorphism of the unit disk sends its marked points to and . Split this disc along its real diameter. Map the upper conformal quadrilateral from c to a rectangle , with and as vertical sides and as its bottom. The lower half is a second identical rectangle. The full disc is obtained by gluing the two rectangles along their two vertical sides and their bottom sides; the two top sides form the original outer boundary.
In this doubled rectangle extremal-length duality, loops enclosing both marked bottom corners have shortest flat length . They must meet both vertical seams, and a closed curve's total horizontal travel is at least ; the doubled horizontal segments attain it. Crosscuts separating the two corners must meet the bottom seam, and run from outer boundary back to outer boundary. Their total vertical travel is at least , attained by doubled vertical segments. The total flat area is .
These flat metrics are extremal, not merely lower bounds. For an arbitrary metric, average the lengths of the doubled horizontal segments over their height and apply the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality to get . Averaging the doubled vertical segments gives . ConsequentlyThe conformal metric on the doubled rectangles pulls back to an admissible metric on the original punctured domain; the two marked corner points have zero area. Here consists of crosscuts with endpoints on the outer boundary, as drawn. Boundedness alone, without the illustrated domain topology and the specified curve families, would not justify this construction.