Rigidity of minimal submanifolds in hyperbolic space

We prove that if an n-dimensional complete minimal submanifold M in hyperbolic space has sufficiently small total scalar curvature then M has only one end. We also prove that for such M there exist no nontrivial L ² harmonic 1-forms on M.     

Harmonic two-forms on manifolds with non-negative isotropic curvature

We prove that L ² harmonic two-forms are parallel if a complete manifold (M, g) has the non-negative isotropic curvature. Furthermore, if (M, g) has positive isotropic curvature at some point, then there is no non-trivial L ² harmonic two-form. We obtain that an almost K?hler manifold of non-negative isotropic curvature is K?hler and a symplectic manifold can not admit any almost K?hler structure of positive isotropic curvature.     

The gradient of certain harmonic functions on manifolds of almost nonnegative Ricci curvature

In this paper we prove that when the Ricci curvature of a Riemannian manifoldM ⁿ is almost nonnegative, and a ballB _L (p)⊂M ⁿ is close in Gromov-Hausdorff distance to a Euclidean ball, then the gradient of the harmonic functionb defined in [ChCo1] does not vanish. In particular, these functions can serve as harmonic coordinates on balls sufficiently close to an Euclidean ball. The proof, is based on a monotonicity theorem that generalizes monotonicity of the frequency for harmonic functions onR ⁿ .     

Total Scalar Curvature and L 2 Harmonic 1-Forms on a Minimal Hypersurface in Euclidean Space

Let M ⁿ , n 3, be a complete oriented immersed minimal hypersurface in Euclidean space R ⁿ⁺¹. We show that if the total scalar curvature on M is less than the n/2 power of 1/C _s , where C _s is the Sobolev constant for M, then there are no L ² harmonic 1-forms on M. As corollaries, such a minimal hypersurface contains no nontrivial harmonic functions with finite Dirichlet integral and so it has only one end. This implies finally that M is a hyperplane.     

Nonstationary weak limit of a stationary harmonic map sequence

Let M and N be two compact Riemannian manifolds. Let u_k be a sequence of stationary harmonic maps from M to N with bounded energies. We may assume that it converges weakly to a weakly harmonic map u in H^1,2 (M, N) as k → ∞. In this paper, we construct an example to show that the limit map u may not be stationary. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Topological restrictions for circle actions and harmonic morphisms

 Let M ^m be a compact oriented smooth manifold admitting a smooth circle action with isolated fixed points which are isolated as singularities as well. Then all the Pontryagin numbers of M ^m are zero and its Euler number is nonnegative and even. In particular, M ^m has signature zero. We apply this to obtain non-existence of harmonic morphisms with one-dimensional fibres from various domains, and a classification of harmonic morphisms from certain 4-manifolds. Received: 16 May 2002 Published online: 14 February 2003 Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 58E20, 53C43, 57R20.     

Stationary harmonic maps into complete Riemannian manifold

The stationary for harmonic maps is considered from a Riemannian manifoldM into a complete Riemannian manifoldN without boundary, and it is proved that its singular set is contained inQ ¹ 2MQ ³ Project supported partially by the Development Foundation Science of Shanghai, China.     

Vanishing theorem for irreducible symmetric spaces of noncompact type

We prove the following vanishing theorem. Let M be an irreducible symmetric space of noncompact type whose dimension exceeds 2 and M ≠SO0（2, 2）/SO（2） × SO（2）. Let π ： E →＊ M be any vector bundle. Then any E-valued L2 harmonic 1-form over M vanishes. In particular we get the vanishing theorem for harmonic maps from irreducible symmetric spaces of noncompact type.     

On the cauchy problem for harmonic maps defined on two-dimensional Minkowski space

Let R¹⁺¹ be two-dimensional Minkowski space and M a complete Riemannian manifold of dimension n. It is proved that the solution of the Cauchy problem for the harmonic map ? : R¹⁺¹ → M exists globally. As an application to physics we conclude that the field function in a two-dimensional chiral field theory is regular for all time, if it is regular initially.     

Busemann Functions in a Harmonic Manifold

For a noncompact complete and simply connected harmonic manifold M, we prove the analyticity of Busemann functionson M. This is the main result of this paper. An application of it shows that the harmonic spaces having minimal horospheres have the bi-asymptotic property. Finally, we prove that the total Busemann functionis continuous in C topology. As a consequence, we show that the uniform divergence of geodesics holds in these spaces.     

Complete noncompact manifolds with harmonic curvature

Let (M ⁿ , g) be an n-dimensional complete noncompact Riemannian manifold with harmonic curvature and positive Sobolev constant. In this paper, by employing an elliptic estimation method, we show that (M ⁿ , g) is a space form if it has sufficiently small L ^n/2-norms of trace-free curvature tensor and nonnegative scalar curvature. Moreover, we get a gap theorem for (M ⁿ , g) with positive scalar curvature.     

Affine differential geometry of surfaces in ℝ4

Employing the method of moving frames, i.e. Cartan's algorithm, we find a complete set of invariants for nondegenerate oriented surfacesM ² in ⁴ relative to the action of the general affine group on ⁴. The invariants found include a normal bundle, a quadratic form onM ² with values in the normal bundle, a symmetric connection onM ² and a connection on the normal bundle. Integrability conditions for these invariants are also determined. Geometric interpretations are given for the successive reductions to the bundle of affine frames overM ², obtained by using the method of moving frames, that lead to the aforementioned invariants. As applications of these results we study a class of surfaces known as harmonic surfaces, finding for them a complete set of invariants and their integrability conditions. Further applications involve the study of homogeneous surfaces; these are surfaces which are fixed by a group of affine transformations that act transitively on the surface. All homogeneous harmonic surfaces are determined.     

On the singular set of stationary harmonic maps

LetM andN be compact riemannian manifolds, andu a stationary harmonic map fromM toN. We prove thatH ⁿ⁻² (Σ)=0, wheren=dimM and Σ is the singular set ofu. This is a generalization of a result of C. Evans [7], where this is proved in the special caseN is a sphere. We also prove that, ifu is a weakly harmonic map inW ^1,n (M, N), thenu is smooth. This extends results of F. Hélein for the casen=2, or the caseN is a sphere ([9], [10]).     

Complete harmonic stable minimal hypersurfaces in a Riemannian manifold

In this paper, we will introduce the notion of harmonic stability for complete minimal hypersurfaces in a complete Riemannian manifold. The first result we prove, is that a complete harmonic stable minimal surface in a Riemannian manifold with non-negative Ricci curvature is conformally equivalent to either a plane R ² or a cylinder R × S ¹, which generalizes a theorem due to Fischer-Colbrie and Schoen [12]. The second one is that an n ≥ 2-dimensional, complete harmonic stable minimal, hypersurface M in a complete Riemannian manifold with non-negative sectional curvature has only one end if M is non-parabolic. The third one, which we prove, is that there exist no non-trivial L ²-harmonic one forms on a complete harmonic stable minimal hypersurface in a complete Riemannian manifold with non-negative sectional curvature. Since the harmonic stability is weaker than stability, we obtain a generalization of a theorem due to Miyaoka [20] and Palmer [21]. Research partially Supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. The author’s research was supported by grant Proj. No. KRF-2007-313-C00058 from Korea Research Foundation, Korea. Authors’ addresses: Qing-Ming Cheng, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Saga University, Saga 840-8502, Japan; Young Jin Suh, Department of Mathematics, Kyungpook National University, Taegu 702-701, South Korea     

A Modification of the Lyons-Sullivan Discretization of Positive Harmonic Functions

A modification of the Lyons-Sullivan discretization of positive harmonic functions on a Riemannian manifold M is proposed. This modification, depending on a choice of constants C = {C _n :n = 1,2,..}, allows for constructing measures n_x^C, x ? M\nu_x^\mathbf{C},\ x\in M, supported on a discrete subset Γ of M such that for every positive harmonic function f on M

Stable minimal hypersurfaces in a Riemannian manifold with pinched negative sectional curvature

We give an estimate of the smallest spectral value of the Laplace operator on a complete noncompact stable minimal hypersurface M in a complete simply connected Riemannian manifold with pinched negative sectional curvature. In the same ambient space, we prove that if a complete minimal hypersurface M has sufficiently small total scalar curvature then M has only one end. We also obtain a vanishing theorem for L ² harmonic 1-forms on minimal hypersurfaces in a Riemannian manifold with sectional curvature bounded below by a negative constant. Moreover, we provide sufficient conditions for a minimal hypersurface in a Riemannian manifold with nonpositive sectional curvature to be stable.     

Harmonic maps into loop spaces of compact Lie groups

We study harmonic maps from Riemann surfaces M to the loop spaces ΩG of compact Lie groups G, using the twistor approach. We conjecture that harmonic maps of the Riemann sphere ℂℙ¹ into ΩG are related to Yang-Mills G-fields on ℝ⁴. This work was partly supported by the RFBR (Grant Nos. 04-01-00236, 06-02-04012), by the program of Support of Scientific Schools (Grant No. 1542.2003.1), and by the Scientific Program of RAS “Nonlinear Dynamics”     

The Yamabe problem on quaternionic contact manifolds

By constructing normal coordinates on a quaternionic contact manifold M, we can osculate the quaternionic contact structure at each point by the standard quaternionic contact structure on the quaternionic Heisenberg group. By using this property, we can do harmonic analysis on general quaternionic contact manifolds, and solve the quaternionic contact Yamabe problem on M if its Yamabe invariant satisfies λ(M) < λ(ℍ ⁿ ). Mathematics Subject Classification (2000) 53C17, 53D10, 35J70     

Metrics with harmonic spinors

We show that every closed spin manifold of dimensionn 3 mod 4 with a fixed spin structure can be given a Riemannian metric with harmonic spinors, i.e. the corresponding Dirac operator has a non-trivial kernel (Theorem A). To prove this we first compute the Dirac spectrum of the Berger spheresS ⁿ ,n odd (Theorem 3.1). The second main ingredient is Theorem B which states that the Dirac spectrum of a connected sumM ₁#M ₂ with certain metrics is close to the union of the spectra ofM ₁ and ofM ₂.Partially supported by SFB 256 and by the GADGET program of the EU     

Harmonic maps from a Riemannian manifold with a pole into an Hadamard manifold with negative sectional curvatures

In this paper we show a nonexistence result for harmonic maps with a rotational nondegeneracy condition from a Riemannian manifoldM with polep ₀ to a negatively curved Hadamard manifold under the condition that the metric tensor ofM is bounded and that the sectional curvature ofM at a pointp is bounded from below by −c dist(p ₀,p)⁻² (c: a positive constant) as dist(p ₀,p)→∞. Partly supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan