Lectures on Complex Analysis - Lecture 4

M. Pollicott
October 8, 2024

Contents
1 Mobius maps and circles on C. 1

2 Existance and Uniqueness of Mobius maps 2

3 Two applications 4
3.1 Application to Apollonian circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2 Hyperbolic Half-plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.3 Classification of Möbius maps and their behaviour . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.4 Flexability of Mobius maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.5 cross-ratios of quadruples of complex numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.6 Images of regions under the Mobius maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1 Mobius maps and circles on C.

The follow resulting is a basic property of Mobius maps. Consider circles in the
complex plane C of the form C := {z ∈ C : |z − z0 | = r} where z0 ∈ C and r > 0. 1
Theorem 1.1. The image of a circle or straight line under a Möbius transformation
is a circle or straight line.
This will be the first of two proofs. The second proof will come later (after we
dedine cross ratios).
Proof. It suffices to consider three different types of Möbius transfomations:
1. If f (z) = Az where A ∈ C with A ̸= 0 then the image f (C) is a circle.
2. If f (z) = z + B where B ∈ C then the image f (C) is a circle.
3. If f (z) = 1/z then the image f (C) is a circle.
The result is clear in cases 1 and 2.
It remains to consider case (3). We want to find an alternative characterization
of circles (and lines) in C which is better suitaed to this case. We first observe
if z = x + iy lies on a circle centred at z0 = x0 + iy0 of radius r > 0 then

(x − x0 )2 + (y − y0 )2 = r2 (1)

On the other hand, consider the set of z ∈ C such that

|z − p|
=k (2)
|z − q|
1 To avoid any confusion, here | · | is the usual notion of distance on C

1
 where p, q ∈ C and k > 0.
Claim. (1) and (2) characterize the same circles (once we relate p, q and k
to x0 , y0 and r).

Proof of claim. If p = u + iv and q = s + it then this becomes:

(x − u)2 + (y − v)2 = k 2 (x − s)2 + (y − t)2

(3)

In particular, more precisely we can rewrite (1) in terms of (3) by choosing

p = u + iv, q = s + it and k such that

(u − k 2 s)
x0 =
1 − k2
v − k2 t
y0 =
1 − k2
u2 + v 2 − k 2 (s2 + t2 ) u − sk 2 v − tk 2
   
2
r =− + + > 0.
1 − k2 1 − k2 1 − k2

To see that circles and lines are preserved by inversions we can see that if z
lies on a circle characterized by (2) then

1 1
|z − p| z − p q
= k ⇐⇒ = k (4)
|z − q| 1
− 1 p
z q

i.e., another equation of a circle of the form (2) (with p replaced by p1 , q

replaced by 1q and k replaced by pq k). In particlar, the image of the circle
given by (2) is a circle given by (4), unless p = 0, q = 0. In this latter case,
the image is a straight line.

2 Existance and Uniqueness of Mobius maps

Theorem 2.1. For distinct z1 , z2 , z3 ∈ C b and distinct w1 , w2 , w3 ∈ C
b there exists
a unique Möbius map f : C b →C b of the form f (z) = az+b with ad − bc = 1 such
cz+d
that f (zi ) = wi , for i = 1, 2, 3.
Proof. We first prove existence and then uniqueness.
Existence. Consider the case that z1 , z2 , z3 ̸= ∞. Let

(z − z2 )(z1 − z3 )
S(z) =
(z − z3 )(z1 − z2 )

then we see that S(z1 ) = 1, S(z2 ) = 0, S(z3 ) = ∞.

Similarly, consider
(z − w2 )(z1 − w3 )
T (z) =
(z − w3 )(z1 − w2 )
then we see that T (w1 ) = 1, T (w2 ) = 0, T (w3 ) = ∞.
If we define f (z) := S −1 ◦ T (z) then we can then observe that f (zi ) := T −1 ◦
S(zi ) = wi (i = 1, 2, 3).
z−z2
In the case that z1 = ∞ then we let S(z) = z−z 3
and similarly for T .

2
 z1 −z3
In the case that z2 = ∞ then we let S(z) = z−z3 and similarly for T .
z−z2
In the case that z3 = ∞ then we let S(z) = z1 −z2 and similarly for T .
Uniqueness. We can assume without loss of generality that w1 = 1, w2 = 0,
w3 = ∞. (Otherwise we can additionally compose with a Möbius map g : C b →C b
taking w1 , w2 , w3 to 1, 0, ∞, respectively. Then we can apply the following argument
to show that f1 ◦ g −1 = f2 ◦ g −1 , which therefore gives us that f1 = f2 ).
Under this simplifying assumption, assume that fj : C b → C b are two Möbius
maps j = 1, 2 such that fj (1) = z1 , fj (0) = z2 , fj (∞) = z3 . Since S(z) = f1−1 ◦f2 (z)
is a Mobius transformation we can write
az + b
S(z) =
cz + d
Moreover, f1−1 ◦ f2 : C
b→C
b fixes the three points 1, 0, ∞. In particular, we see that

S(0) = b/d = 0 =⇒ b = 0
S(∞) = a/c = ∞ =⇒ c = 0, and
S(1) = (a + b)/(c + d) = a/d = 1
from which we deduce that S(z) = z for all z, i.e., f1 = f2 .
Let us consider a few examples of this result.
Example 2.2. Find the Möbius transformation f which maps −1, 0, 1 to the points
−i, 1, i.
Assume that f (z) = az+b b az+b
cz+d . Since f (0) = d = 1 we have b = d and f (z) = cz+b .
−ia+b ia+b
Similarly, since f (−1) = −ic+b = 1 =⇒ ic − ib = −a + b and f (1) = ic+b = i =⇒
ic + ib = a + b. Adding the last two equations gives c = −ib and subtracting gives
a = ib. Thus
ibz + b iz + 1 i−z
f (z) = = = .
−ibz + b −iz + 1 i+z
(Formally, we should also multiply the coefficients by constant to get ad − bc = 1)
Example 2.3. Let D = {z ∈ C : |z| < 1} be the open unit disk unit and let
H = {z ∈ C : Im(z) > 0} be the upper half-plane. Find a surjective Möbius map
f : H → D.
Actually, the map in the previous example works (as one might guess from the
three points in the boundary of H being mapped to three points in the boundary
of D). To see this, let z = x + iy with y > 0 then
2 2
i − (x + iy) −x + i(1 − y)) x2 + (1 − y)2
|f (z)| = = = < 1,
i + (x + iy) x + i(y + 1) x2 + (1 + y)2
i.e., f (z) ∈ D.
Example 2.4. Fix a ∈ C and then we can define a Möbius map f : C
b →C
b by
a−z
f (z) = .
1 − az
Notice that
|a − z|2 |a|2 − 2Re(az) + |z|2
|f (z)|2 = = .
|a − az|2 1 − 2Re(az) + |az|2
It is easy to check that |z| = 1 if and only if |f (z)| = 1. Moreover, if |f (z)| < 1 is
equivalent to
|a|2 + |z|2 < 1 + |az|2 < 1 ⇐⇒ (1 − |a|2 )(1 − |z|2 ) > 0 ⇐⇒ |z| < 1
since |a| < 1. We can conclude that f : D → D.