Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 11 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Schwarz-Pick lemma says that every holomorphic self-map of the unit disc contracts pseudohyperbolic distance and therefore hyperbolic distance:Its infinitesimal form isEquality for distinct points in the distance inequality, or at one point in the derivative inequality, holds exactly when is a disc Möbius transformation.
For completeness, first prove the Schwarz lemma. If is holomorphic and , the quotient extends holomorphically at zero. On its modulus is at most . The maximum modulus principle, followed by , gives and . Equality at a nonzero point or in the derivative forces that quotient to be a constant of modulus one, again by the maximum modulus principle; hence .
Now let and apply this result to , which fixes zero. The modulus inequality is exactly the displayed distance inequality, and is increasing in , giving hyperbolic contraction. Also and , so the chain rule proves the derivative inequality. The equality statement follows from the rotation case of the Schwarz lemma after undoing the two automorphisms. Conversely a disc automorphism preserves the distance and attains equality.
There is a maximum of the derivative modulus in the given annulus family, which is nonempty because it contains the constant function one. Indeed the functions are bounded by , and Cauchy estimates bound their derivatives at zero. Take a sequence whose derivative moduli approach the finite supremum. By Montel theorem it has a subsequence converging locally uniformly to a holomorphic function , with and . The upper equality cannot occur at an interior point, because the maximum modulus principle would force a constant of modulus , contrary to . The lower equality is excluded by applying the same argument to , which is holomorphic because . Thus the limit still maps into the open annulus. Locally uniform convergence gives convergence of derivatives by the Cauchy integral formula, so this limit attains the supremum.
To compute it and all extremizers, the nonvanishing function on the simply connected disc has a holomorphic logarithm with . One can construct it by integrating from zero; differentiation shows is constant, hence one. Its real part obeys . The mapis a biholomorphism from this vertical strip onto the disc. To check the inverse explicitly, for the ratio has positive real part, so its logarithm with value zero at zero has imaginary part in . Thereforehas real part between minus one and one, and direct substitution gives . The strip restriction removes the period ambiguity of the tangent, so these are inverse maps.
Applying the Schwarz lemma to gives . Since , the exact maximum isIt is attained by . The equality case requires , and hence all maximizing functions areTheir derivatives are , so the extremizer is not unique: there is exactly this circle of distinct functions, with the parameter considered modulo . This is the extremal derivative of a disc map into a symmetric annulus for .