The Robin function of a planar
domain is a generalization of Green’s function. It can be used to represent the
solutions of mixed boundary-value problems for harmonic functions. Here it is
combined with a variational method to solve certain extremal problems for the
energy functional of a multiply connected domain. Some deeper properties of the
Robin function are then explored. An allied system of conformal invariants called the
Robin matrix is introduced and is compared with the classical Riemann matrix of a
finitely connected domain.