Clunie and Sheil-Small [‘Harmonic univalent functions’, Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn. Ser. A. I. Math.9 (1984), 3–25] gave a simple and useful univalence criterion for harmonic functions, usually called the shear construction. However, the application of this theorem is limited to planar harmonic mappings that are convex in the horizontal direction. In this paper, a natural generalisation of the shear construction is given. More precisely, our results are obtained under the hypothesis that the image of a harmonic function is a union of two sets that are convex in the horizontal direction.

Let $u$ be a supertemperature on an open set $E$, and let $v$ be a related temperature on an open subset $D$ of $E$. For example, $v$ could be the greatest thermic minorant of $u$ on $D$, if it exists. Putting $w=u$ on $E\setminus D$ and $w=v$ on $D$, we investigate whether $w$, or its lower semicontinuous smoothing, is a supertemperature on $E$. We also give a representation of the greatest thermic minorant on $E$, if it exists, in terms of PWB solutions on an expanding sequence of open subsets of $E$ with union $E$.  In addition, in the case of a nonnegative supertemperature, we prove inequalities that relate reductions to Dirichlet solutions. We also prove that the value of any reduction at a given time depends only on earlier times.

We show that the null limit hypothesis, in the definition of a barrier, can be relaxed for normal boundary points that satisfy a mild additional condition. We also give a simple necessary and sufficient condition for the regularity of semi-singular boundary points.

In this paper, we investigate the properties of locally univalent and multivalent planar harmonic mappings. First, we discuss coefficient estimates and Landau’s theorem for some classes of locally univalent harmonic mappings, and then we study some Lipschitz-type spaces for locally univalent and multivalent harmonic mappings.

Let $p$ be a real number greater than one and let $\Gamma $ be a graph of bounded degree. We investigate links between the $p$-harmonic boundary of $\Gamma $ and the ${D}_{p} $-massive subsets of $\Gamma $. In particular, if there are $n$ pairwise disjoint ${D}_{p} $-massive subsets of $\Gamma $, then the $p$-harmonic boundary of $\Gamma $ consists of at least $n$ elements. We show that the converse of this statement is also true.

In this paper, we study the properties of $k$-plurisubharmonic functions defined on domains in ${ \mathbb{C} }^{n} $. By the monotonicity formula, we give an alternative proof of the weak continuity of complex $k$-Hessian operators with respect to local uniform convergence.

We study recurrence and transience for Lévy processes induced by topological transformation groups acting on complete Riemannian manifolds. In particular the transience–recurrence dichotomy in terms of potential measures is established and transience is shown to be equivalent to the potential measure having finite mass on compact sets when the group acts transitively. It is known that all bi-invariant Lévy processes acting in irreducible Riemannian symmetric pairs of noncompact type are transient. We show that we also have ‘harmonic transience’, that is, local integrability of the inverse of the real part of the characteristic exponent which is associated to the process by means of Gangolli’s Lévy–Khinchine formula.

For holomorphic functions $f$ in the unit disk $ \mathbb{D} $ with $f(0)= 0$, we prove a modulus growth bound involving the logarithmic capacity (transfinite diameter) of the image. We show that the pertinent extremal functions map the unit disk conformally onto the interior of an ellipse. We prove a modulus growth bound for elliptically schlicht functions in terms of the elliptic capacity ${\mathrm{d} }_{\mathrm{e} } f( \mathbb{D} )$ of the image. We also show that the function ${\mathrm{d} }_{\mathrm{e} } f(r \mathbb{D} )/ r$ is increasing for $0\lt r\lt 1$.

The method of deriving scaling limits using Dirichlet-form techniques has already been successfully applied to a number of infinite-dimensional problems. However, extracting the key tools from these papers is a rather difficult task for non-experts. This paper meets the need for a simple presentation of the method by applying it to a basic example, namely the convergence of Brownian motions with potentials given by n multiplied by the Dirac delta at 0 to Brownian motion with absorption at 0.

We study a Dirichlet problem involving the weak Laplacian on the Sierpiński gasket, and we prove the existence of at least two distinct nontrivial weak solutions using Ekeland’s Variational Principle and standard tools in critical point theory combined with corresponding variational techniques.

In this article we consider whether, for integrable functions on the unit ball of ℂn, the mean-value property implies (α,β)-harmonicity. We find that the answer is affirmative when 0<n+α+β≤ρ0, but is negative when n+α+β>ρ0. Here ρ0 is a constant between 11.025 and 11.069.

For functions u, subharmonic in the plane, let

and let N(r,u) be the integrated counting function. Suppose that is a non-negative non-decreasing convex function of log r for which for all small r and , where 1 < ρ < 2, and define

A sharp upper bound is obtained for and a sharp lower bound is obtained for .

This paper presents a sharp boundary growth estimate for all positive superharmonic functions u in a smooth domain Ω in ℝ2 satisfying the nonlinear inequality where c>0, α∈ℝ and p>0, and δΩ(x) stands for the distance from a point x to the boundary of Ω. A result is applied to show the existence of nontangential limits of such superharmonic functions.

We discuss here the boundedness of the fractional integral operator Iα and its generalized version on generalized nonhomogeneous Morrey spaces. To prove the boundedness of Iα, we employ the boundedness of the so-called maximal fractional integral operator Ia,κ*. In addition, we prove an Olsen-type inequality, which is analogous to that in the case of homogeneous type.

Let (X,d) be a compact metric space and let ℳ(X) denote the space of all finite signed Borel measures on X. Define I:ℳ(X)→ℝ by and set M(X)=sup I(μ), where μ ranges over the collection of signed measures in ℳ(X) of total mass 1. The metric space (X,d) is quasihypermetric if for all n∈ℕ, all α1,…,αn∈ℝ satisfying ∑ i=1nαi=0 and all x1,…,xn∈X, the inequality ∑ i,j=1nαiαjd(xi,xj)≤0 holds. Without the quasihypermetric property M(X) is infinite, while with the property a natural semi-inner product structure becomes available on ℳ0(X), the subspace of ℳ(X) of all measures of total mass 0. This paper explores: operators and functionals which provide natural links between the metric structure of (X,d), the semi-inner product space structure of ℳ0(X) and the Banach space C(X) of continuous real-valued functions on X; conditions equivalent to the quasihypermetric property; the topological properties of ℳ0(X) with the topology induced by the semi-inner product, and especially the relation of this topology to the weak-* topology and the measure-norm topology on ℳ0(X); and the functional-analytic properties of ℳ0(X) as a semi-inner product space, including the question of its completeness. A later paper [P. Nickolas and R. Wolf, Distance geometry in quasihypermetric spaces. II, Math. Nachr., accepted] will apply the work of this paper to a detailed analysis of the constant M(X).

Convexity and weak closeness of the set of Φ-superharmonic functions in a bounded Lipschitz domain in Rn is considered. By using the fact of that Φ-superharmonic functions are just the solutions to an obstacle problem and establishing some special properties of the obstacle problem, it is shown that if Φ satisfies Δ2-condition, then the set is not convex unless Φ(r) = Cr2 or n = 1. Nevertheless, it is found that the set is still weakly closed in the corresponding Orlicz-Sobolev space.

By using integration by parts and Stokes' formula the authors give a new definition of the Hadamard principal value of higher order singular integrals on the complex hypersphere in Cn. Then the transformation formula for the higher order singular integrals is deduced.

We study singularities of solutions of the heat equation, that are not necessarily isolated but occur only in a single characteristic hyperplane. We prove a decomposition theorem for certain solutions on D+ = D ∩ (Rn × ]0. ∞[), for a suitable open set D, with singularities at compact subset K of Rn × {0}, in terms of Gauss-Weierstrass integrals. We use this to prove a representation theorem for certain solutions on D+, with singularities at K, as the sums of potentials and Dirichlet solutions. We also give conditions under which K is removable for solutions on D∖K.

We introduce a class of “differential operators” on graphs and we prove an energy estimate and a Liouville type theorem depending on some structural properties of the operators considered.

The parabolicity of Brelot's harmonic spaces is characterized by the fact that every positive harmonic function is of minimal growth at the ideal boundary.