It is shown that the punctual quotient scheme$Q$_{l}^{r}parametrizing all zero-dimensional quotients $$\mathcal{O}_{A^2 }^{ \oplus ^r } \to T$$ of length$l$and supported at some fixed point O∈$A$^{2}in the plane is irreducible.

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Let$I$be a union of finitely many closed intervals in [−1, 0). Let$I$^{↞}be a single interval of the form [−1, −a] chosen to have the same logarithmic length as$I$. Let$D$be the unit disc. Then, Beurling [8] has shown that the harmonic measure of the circle ∂$D$at the origin in the slit disc$D$/$I$is increased if$I$is replaced by$I$^{↞}. We prove a number of cognate results and extensions. For instance, we show that Beurling's result remains true if the intervals in$I$are not just one-dimensional, but if they in fact constitute polar rectangles centred on the negative real axis and having some fixed constant angular width. In doing this, we obtain a new proof of Beurling's result. We also discuss a conjecture of Matheson and Pruss [25] and some other open problems.

Let ϕ be an analytic function defined on the unit disk$D$, with ϕ($D$)⊂$D$, ϕ(0)=0, and ϕ′(0)=λ≠0. Then by a classical result of G. Kœnigs, the sequence of normalized iterates Φ_{$n$}/λ^{$n$}converges uniformly on compact subsets of$D$to a function σ analytic in$D$which satisfies$σ$°φ=λ$σ$. It is of interest in the study of composition operators to know if, whenever σ belongs to a Hardy space$H$_{$p$}, the sequence Φ_{$n$}/λ^{$n$}converges to σ in the norm of$H$_{$p$}. We show that this is indeed the case, generalizing a result of P. Bourdon obtained under the assumption that ϕ is univalent.