Conformally Natural extensions revisited

Abstract

In this note we revisit the notion of conformal barycenter of a measure on $\SS^n$ as defined by Douady and Earle in Acta Math. Vol 157, 1986. The aim is to extend rational maps from the Riemann sphere $\Cbar\isom\SS^2$ to the (hyperbolic) three ball $\BB^3$ and thus to $\SS^3$ by reflection. The construction which was pioneered by Douady and Earle in the case of homeomorphisms actually gives extensions for more general maps such as entire transcendental maps on $\C\subset\Cbar$. And it works for maps in any dimension.