Computing Teichmüller Maps between Polygons

Abstract

By the Riemann-mapping theorem, one can bijectively map the interior of an $n$-gon $P$ to that of another $n$-gon $Q$ conformally. However, (the boundary extension of) this mapping need not necessarily map the vertices of $P$ to those $Q$. In this case, one wants to find the ``best" mapping between these polygons, i.e., one that minimizes the maximum angle distortion (the dilatation) over \textit{all} points in $P$. From complex analysis such maps are known to exist and are unique. They are called extremal quasiconformal maps, or Teichmüller maps. Although there are many efficient ways to compute or approximate conformal maps, there is currently no such algorithm for extremal quasiconformal maps. This paper studies the problem of computing extremal quasiconformal maps both in the continuous and discrete settings. We provide the first constructive method to obtain the extremal quasiconformal map in the continuous setting. Our construction is via an iterative procedure that is proven to converge quickly to the unique extremal map. To get to within $ε$ of the dilatation of the extremal map, our method uses $O(1/ε^{4})$ iterations. Every step of the iteration involves convex optimization and solving differential equations, and guarantees a decrease in the dilatation. Our method uses a reduction of the polygon mapping problem to that of the punctured sphere problem, thus solving a more general problem. We also discretize our procedure. We provide evidence for the fact that the discrete procedure closely follows the continuous construction and is therefore expected to converge quickly to a good approximation of the extremal quasiconformal map.