Conformal invariants associated with quadratic differentials

We associate a functional of pairs of simply-connected regions D2 ⊆ D1 to any quadratic differential on D1 with specified singularities. This functional is conformally invariant, monotonic, and negative. Equality holds if and only if the inner domain is the outer domain minus trajectories of the quadratic differential. This generalizes the simply-connected case of results of Z. Nehari [20], who developed a general technique for obtaining inequalities for conformal maps and domain functions from contour integrals and the Dirichlet principle for harmonic functions. Nehari’s method corresponds to the special case that the quadratic differential is of the form (∂q)2 for a singular harmonic function q on D1.