Hyperbolic tube around a radial segment 2026-10-14
Under the Cayley transform between the half-plane and disk, a radial segment ending at a boundary point becomes a vertical half-ray. If a point is within hyperbolic distance of that half-ray, it lies in a fixed angular sector. Indeed, in the complex upper half-plane, . This converts bounded hyperbolic approach to a boundary point into nontangential approach, allowing normal-family proof of angular boundary convergence to transfer radial limits of bounded holomorphic functions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 5 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A normal family of holomorphic functions on a domain is one from which every sequence has a subsequence converging locally uniformly to a holomorphic function, or locally uniformly to infinity in the extended convention. For a bounded family, only finite limits occur.
For functions mapping a plane domain into the unit disc, the Cauchy integral formula supplies uniform derivative bounds on each compact subset. More explicitly, if a closed disc of radius around lies in , the Cauchy estimate gives . A slightly larger compact neighborhood of any given compact set therefore gives uniform boundedness and equicontinuity there. Apply the Arzelà-Ascoli theorem on a compact exhaustion and take a diagonal subsequence. Its limit is locally uniform; the Cauchy integral formula shows that the limit is holomorphic. This proves normality rather than merely invoking it.
Now let on the complex upper half-plane. Every dilation has the same bound, so the argument just given, after scaling the bound if necessary, proves that is a normal family. For any sequence , every locally uniform subsequential limit satisfiesThe identity theorem for holomorphic functions forces . It follows that locally uniformly as : otherwise a sequence violating convergence on one compact set would have a convergent subsequence with this same constant limit, a contradiction.
For , the arc is a compact subset of the complex upper half-plane. Write with . Local uniform convergence of the dilations givesFor the specified sector is empty. This is the same compactness mechanism as the normal-family proof of angular boundary convergence.
To transfer the result to the unit disc, use the Cayley transform between the half-plane and diskIt sends to with , so as . Choose the curvature-minus-one normalization of the hyperbolic metric, for which the disc line element is and the half-plane line element is . The Cayley transform between the half-plane and disk preserves these metrics. For and ,Thus implies . This is the hyperbolic tube around a radial segment estimate. It places in a fixed sector bounded away from the real axis. Moreover implies . Applying the sector result givesA different constant normalization of the hyperbolic metric only rescales and gives the same conclusion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 10 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A normal family is a family such that every sequence has a subsequence converging locally uniformly in the spherical metric to a meromorphic limit, possibly the constant infinity. For a family uniformly bounded in modulus, the possible limits are finite holomorphic functions, and ordinary locally uniform convergence suffices. The limit need not take values in the open unit disc; a sequence of constants can approach its boundary.
Here is a direct compactness proof for disc-valued maps. For each compact subset , choose a slightly larger compact neighborhood contained in . The Cauchy estimate on a fixed-radius disk around each point bounds independently of because . A finite covering of yields uniform boundedness and equicontinuity there. The Arzelà-Ascoli theorem, applied successively to a compact exhaustion and followed by a diagonal subsequence, gives a limit uniformly on every compact. The Cauchy integral formula passes to that limit on small circles, proving it is a holomorphic function. This proves the required normal family assertion rather than just invoking Montel theorem.
Every is a holomorphic function on the complex upper half-plane with values in the unit disc, so the same argument makes a normal family. If a subsequence converges locally uniformly to , then for every ,The identity theorem for holomorphic functions gives . Since every convergent subsequence has this same limit, the whole sequence converges locally uniformly to : otherwise a compact set and a subsequence with a fixed positive discrepancy would have a further locally uniformly convergent subsequence, a contradiction.
To obtain the nontangential limit, take any with and . Put . Then , , and the points lie, for large , in a fixed compact rectangle inside the half-plane. ThereforeThis is the normal-family proof of angular boundary convergence; using integer rescalings requires this step because the points need not lie exactly on one fixed scaled ray.
For a tangential counterexample, useIf with , then , so is a holomorphic function and . Also . ButTheir ratio tends to infinity. Thus the nontangential limit is zero while the unrestricted boundary limit does not exist.