English

A Geometric Interpretation of Half-Plane Capacity

Probability 2009-09-03 v2 Complex Variables

Abstract

Let A be a bounded, relatively closed subset of the upper half plane H whose complement C is simply connected. If B_t is a standard complex Brownian motion starting at iy and t_A = inf {t > 0: B_t not in C}, the half-plane capacity of A, hcap(A) is defined to be the limit as y goes to infinity of y E[Im(B_{t_A}]. This quantity arises naturally in the study of Schramm-Loewner Evolutions (SLE). In this note, we show that hcap(A) is comparable to a more geometric quantity hsiz(A) that we define to be the 2-dimensional Lebesgue measure of the union of all balls tangent to R whose centers belong to A. Our main result is that hsiz(A)/66 < hcap(A) leq 7 hsiz(A)/(2 pi).

Cite

@article{arxiv.0909.0488,
  title  = {A Geometric Interpretation of Half-Plane Capacity},
  author = {Steven Lalley and Gregory Lawler and Hariharan Narayanan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.0488},
  year   = {2009}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:41:54.126Z