Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2004 / iii / Paper 9 / 4 / i / Solution

For a harmonic function $u$, put $g=u_x-i{u}_y$. Its Wirtinger derivative isso the Cauchy-Riemann equations make $g$ holomorphic. In the simply connected domain it has a single-valued primitiveThe integral is path independent: local holomorphic primitives make its value invariant under path homotopies, and being simply connected makes any two paths with the given endpoints homotopic, as in Question 3.

Since $F^{\prime }=g$, the real part satisfies $(\mathrm{Re}F{)}_x=u_x$ and $(\mathrm{Re}F{)}_y=\mathrm{Re}(ig)=u_y$. Hence $\mathrm{Re}F-u$ is constant on the connected domain. Adding a real constant corrects it, producing a single-valued holomorphic $f$ with $\mathrm{Re}f=u$. The imaginary part is a harmonic conjugate and is unique up to an additive real constant. This is the global harmonic conjugate criterion by vanishing periods in the simply connected case.