Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 January 2016
A domain D ⊂ Cz admits the circular slit mapping P(z) for a, b ∈ D such that P(z) – 1/(z – a) is regular at a and P(b) = 0. We call p(z) = log|P(z)| the Li-principal function and α = log |P′(b)| the L1-constant, and similarly, the radial slit mapping Q(z) implies the L0-principal function q(z) and the L0-constant β. We call s = α – β the harmonic span for (D, a, b). We show the geometric meaning of s. Hamano showed the variation formula for the L1-constant α(t) for the moving domain D(t) in Cz with t ∈ B:= {t ∈ C: |t| < ρ}. We show the corresponding formula for the L0-constant β (t) for D(t) and combine these to prove that, if the total space D = ∪t∈B(t, D (t)) is pseudoconvex in B × Cz, then s(t) is subharmonic on B. As a direct application, we have the subharmonicity of log cosh d(t) on B, where d(t) is the Poincaré distance between a and b on D(t).