Comples Notes 1

Abhishake Sadhukhan
Conformal Transformations

In these notes we will learn about conformal transformations or mappings and how they are
related to conformal functions in complex analysis. In general, a coordinate transformation
0
xµ → xµ (1)
is called conformal if the metric in these coordinates are related by an overall factor

gµν = F (x)gµ0 ν 0 (2)

Note that the above equation means, all the metric elements are multiplied by the same factor F (x).
The simplest example is scaling of coordinates by a constant factor(this transformation is also
called dilatation/dilation in physics).
0
xµ = cxµ (3)

will change the metric in the following way

gµν = F gµ0 ν 0 (4)

Exercise 1: Write F in terms of c.

Now let’s focus on conformal trasformations in 2 dimensions. Consider the 2 dimensional flat
space with line element

ds2 = dx2 + dy 2 (5)

The metric element in these coordinates are of course
 
1 0
ηµν = (6)
0 1

we can of course club these 2 coordinates in its complex form z = x + iy and z̄ = x − iy.
Exercise 2: What do the line element ds2 and the metric tensor look like in z and z̄ coordinates.
Now consider a general transformation

x → u(x, y), , y → v(x, y) (7)

x, y, u, v are all contravariant coordinates. They have indices on top. In the index notation taught
in the class, they look like:
0 0
x1 = x, x2 = y, x1 = u, x2 = v and so on...
In other words, we are transforming the complex coordinate

z → w(z) = u + iv (8)

1
Now, we want to find for which u and v does the metric remain conformally flat. The question
we are asking is what conditions do u and v need to satisfy if the metric tensors are related in a
conformal manner?
0 0
g µ ν = f (x)η µν (9)

Note: The metric in equation (9) is called confomally flat metric, which simply means that the
metric tensor is a factor times flat metric.
Exercise 3: Convince yourself that the above equation can be written from equation(2). How
are f (x) and F (x) related?
and also, they are related by general tensor transformation
 µ0   ν 0 
µ0 ν 0 ∂x ∂x
g = µ ν
η µν (10)
∂x ∂x

Exercise 4: Using(9) and (10) show that u and v satisfy the Cauchy-Riemann conditions. So, there
are two ways of showing if a function of z is analytic or not. You either see if it satisfies the Cauchy
Riemann conditions or check if the transformed metric is conformally flat.
This means any analytic function of z will lead to a conformally flat metric. This has some
far-reaching consequences and applications in theoretical physics from electrostatics to string the-
ory. As a matter of fact, one can easily solve Poisson and Laplace’s equations in 2 d with any
complicated boundary conditions that you can think of.
Exercise 5: a) Show that w = eiφ z is a conformal transformation. b) What are u and v in terms
of x and y? Does this transformation look familiar? c) What is the metric in u and v coordinates?
Exercise 6: Use the following coordinate transformation w = z 2 or

u = x2 − y 2 , v = 2xy (11)
and answer the following questions.
a) Find g µν (all the 3 independent elements) in the (u, v) coordinate system. Is it be of the form
the form g µν = f (x, y)η µν ?
b) Invert the relation between (u, v) and (x, y) and find x and y. You may choose only the
positive roots.
c) Plug the result of (b) in (a) and write the metric g µν = F (u, v)η µν . After two lines of algebra,
F (u, v) can be reduced to a simple expression.
Exercise 7: Consider the following conformally flat metric(conformally flat means the metric
is a factor times flat metric)
gµν = h(x)ηµν (12)
where h(x) is a function of coordinates and η is the general Euclidean metric. Obviously
1 µν
g µν = η (13)
h(x)
Using this information answer the following
a) The general expression for the Christoffel connection as you have found in the assignment is
g µσ
Γµαβ = (∂α gβσ + ∂β gασ − ∂σ gαβ ) (14)
2
Simplify the expression Christoffel connection for the conformally flat metric given above.
Your final answer may contain only derivatives of h, h, Euclidean metric and isotropic tensors.

2
 b) Taking into account that the Christoffel connection (CC) is symmetric in the lower 2 indices,
derive an expression for the number of independent components of CC in D dimensions.
c) Identify F (u, v) from problem (1.c) as 1/h and find Γuvv , Γuuu and Γuvu using the above sim-
plified expression(1.a). In case you are unable to find the answer to (1.c), use
√
F (u, v) = c u2 + v 2 (15)

where c is a constant.
An interesting property of the conformal mapping that is often exploited in solving boundary
value problems is that the mapping preserves angles. Suppose you have two curves(straight lines
are also curves) in z plane and let the angles between these curves be α. Then under mapping
z → w(z), the angle between these curves remain α in w plane. As an example consider the
mapping w = ln(z). Write z = reiθ .
Exercise 8:(a) Show that this is a conformal mapping in a certain domain. Where in the z plane
is this function analytic?
(b) Now draw 4 concentric circles centered around the origin in the z plane. Let the smaller
circles radius be 0.1, the second circle’s radius be 1 and the third circle’s radius be the Euler number
e and the fourth circle’s radius be e2 = 7.389. Show that these circular lines get mapped to straight
lines in the w plane. More specifically, these circles in z plane correspond to u = −2.302, u =
0, u = 1 and u = 2 lines.
(c) Now draw θ = −π/2, 0, π/2 on the circles in the z plane. These lines are clearly perpendic-
ular to the circles. What do these lines correspond to in the w plane?