Painleve's problem and the semiadditivity of analytic capacity

Abstract

Let $γ(E)$ be the analytic capacity of a compact set $E$ and let $γ_+(E)$ be the capacity of $E$ originated by Cauchy transforms of positive measures. In this paper we prove that $γ(E)\approxγ_+(E)$ with estimates independent of $E$. As a corollary, we characterize removable singularities for bounded analytic functions in terms of curvature of measures, and we deduce that $γ$ is semiadditive, which solves a long standing question of Vitushkin.