Biharmonic properly immersed submanifolds in Euclidean spaces (Q1953076)

Let \(M\) be an \(n\)-dimensional connected immersed submanifold in the Euclidean \(N\)-space \(\mathbb{E}^N(n<N)\) and let \(\mathbf{x}\) denote the position vector field. \(M\) is said to be biharmonic if \[ \triangle^2\mathbf{x}=n\triangle \mathbf{H}=0, \] where \(\triangle\) the Laplace operator on \(M\) and \(\mathbf{H}\) the mean curvature vector field of \(M\). The immersion is proper if the preimage of every compact set in \(\mathbb{E}^N\) is also compact in \(M\). Chen's conjecture states that any biharmonic submanifold \(M\) in \(\mathbb{E}^N\) is minimal. The main result of this paper is the following. Theorem 1: Any biharmonic properly immersed submanifold \(M\) in \(\mathbb{E}^N\) is minimal. The basic tool is the generalized maximum principle technique developed by \textit{S.-Y. Cheng} and \textit{S.-T. Yau} in [Ann. Math. (2) 104, 407--419 (1976; Zbl 0352.53021)].