Liouville's theorem in conformal geometry

Karin Melnick
Department of Mathematics, University of Chicago

Abstract: A classical theorem of Liouville states that any conformal, or angle-preserving, map between open subsets of R^n, for n at least 3, is a composition of an inversion and an affine similarity. I will present a proof, due to Charles Frances, of the main step in Liouville's theorem, showing that any angle-preserving map sends spheres to spheres. The idea is to extend the map to C^n, where it will still be conformal in some sense, and to use the fact that these conformal maps send certain complex lines, called null geodesics, to other null geodesics.