Infima of universal energy functionals on homotopy classes

We consider the infima (f) on homotopy classes of energy functionals E defined on smooth maps f: Mⁿ → V^k between compact connected Riemannian manifolds. If M contains a sub‐manifold L of codimension greater than the degree of E then (f) is determined by the homotopy class of the restriction of f to M \ L. Conversely if the infimum on a homotopy class of a functional of at least conformal degree vanishes then the map is trivial in homology of high degrees. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)