An extension of a theorem of Gehring and Pommerenke

Gehring and Pommerenke have shown that if the Schwarzian derivativeSf of an analytic functionf in the unit diskD satisfies |Sf(z)|≤, 2(1 - |z|²)^–2 thenf(D) is a Jordan domain except whenf(D) is the image under a Möbius transformation of an infinite parallel strip. The condition |Sf(z)|≤ 2(1 - |z|²)^–2 is the classical sufficient condition for univalence of Nehari. In this paper we show that the same type of phenomenon established by Gehring and Pommerenke holds for a wider class of univalence criteria of the form|Sf(z)|≤p(|z|) also introduced by Nehari. These include|Sf((z)|≤π ²/2 and|Sf((z)|≤4(1-|z| ²)^–1. We also obtain results on Hölder continuity and quasiconformal extensions.