Liouville theorem for harmonic maps from Riemannian manifold with compact boundary (Q6116892)

Gradient estimates are a very important technique in geometric analysis, first introduced by \textit{S.-t. Yau} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 28, 201--228 (1975; Zbl 0291.31002)]. A consequence of Yau's gradient estimates is the well-known Liouville theorem, which states that any positive harmonic function on a complete Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature is a constant. \textit{S.-Y. Cheng} [Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 36, 147--151 (1980; Zbl 0455.58009)] generalized Yau's gradient estimate to harmonic maps. This implies a Liouville theorem for harmonic maps. A connected, complete, noncompact Riemannian manifold \(M\) with compact boundary satisfying Ric\(_M\ge 0\) and \(H_{\partial M}\ge 0\) is called a Kasue manifold, where \(H_{\partial M}\) is the mean curvature of \(\partial M\) in \(M\). In the paper under review the authors establish a Liouville theorem for harmonic maps from a Kasue manifold to a simply connected Riemannian manifold with non-positive sectional curvature. The authors prove nonexistence of positive solutions to some elliptic equations on Kasue manifolds.