CR rigidity of pseudo harmonic maps and pseudo biharmonic maps (Q2012186)

The generalized B.-Y. Chen's conjecture says that every biharmonic submanifold of a Riemannian manifold of nonpositive curvature must be harmonic. Recall that harmonic maps between Riemannian manifolds are critical points of the energy functional, whereas biharmonic maps are critical points of the bienergy functional defined by the square norm of the tension field. Every harmonic map is always biharmonic by definition. For the generalized Chen's conjecture, \textit{Y.-L. Ou} and \textit{L. Tang} [Mich. Math. J. 61, No. 3, 531--542 (2012; Zbl 1268.58015)] gave a counterexample in a Riemannian manifold of negative curvature. However, under \(L^2\) condition on energy or bienergy, there are some affirmative results for the generalized Chen's conjecture. For instance, \textit{N. Nakauchi} et al. [Geom. Dedicata 169, 263--272 (2014; Zbl 1316.58012)] proved that for a complete Riemannian manifold \((M, g)\) and a Riemannian manifold \((N, h)\) of nonpositive curvature, every biharmonic map \(\varphi : (M,g) \to (N, h)\) with finite energy and finite bienergy is harmonic. In this paper, the author proves a CR analogue of the generalized Chen's conjecture for pseudo harmonic maps and pesudo biharmonic maps. Let \(M\) be a strictly pseudoconvex CR manifold of dimension \((2n+1)\), \(T\) the characteristic vector field on \(M\), \(J\) the complex structure of the horizontal subspace \(H(M)\) determinded by \(T\), and \(g_\theta\) the Webster Riemannian metric on \(M\). For a map \(\varphi\) from \((M, g_\theta)\) into another Riemannian manifold \((N, h)\), the pseudo energy \(E_b(\varphi)\) is defined by \[ E_b(\varphi) = \frac{1}{2}\int_M \sum_{i=1}^{2n} (\varphi^* h)(e_i, e_i)\theta \wedge (d\theta)^n, \] where \(\{e_i\}\) is an orthonormal frame on \((H(M), g_\theta)\). A map \(\varphi: (M, g_\theta) \to (N, h)\) is called pseudo harmonic if it is a critical point of the pseudo energy functional, or equivalently the pseudo tension field, which is given by \[ \tau_b(\varphi) = \sum_{i=1}^{2n} B_\varphi (e_i, e_i), \] is vanishing. Here \(B\) denotes the second fundamental form of \((M, g_\theta)\) into \((N, h)\). \textit{S. Dragomir} and \textit{S. Montaldo} [J. Geom. Anal. 24, No. 1, 223--245 (2014; Zbl 1317.58017)] introduced the pseudo bienergy given by \[ E_{b, 2}(\varphi) = \frac{1}{2}\int_M h(\tau_b(\varphi), \tau_b(\varphi)) \theta \wedge (d\theta)^n. \] A map \(\varphi: (M, g_\theta) \to (N, h)\) is called pseudo biharmonic if it is a critical point of the pseudo bienergy functional. The first result in this paper is the following. Let \(\varphi\) be a pseudo biharmonic map of a complete CR manifold \((M, g_\theta)\) into a Riemannian manifold \((N, h)\) of nonpositive curvature. If the pseudo energy \(E_b(\varphi)\) and the pseudo bienergy \(E_{b,2}(\varphi)\) are finite, then \(\varphi\) is pseudo harmonic. For isometric immersions of a CR manifold \((M^{2n+1}, g_\theta)\) into the unit sphere \(S^{2n+2}(1)\) of curvature \(1\), the author shows that if the pseudo mean curvature is pseudo parallel, but not pseudo harmonic, then \(\varphi\) is pseudo biharmonic if and only if the restriction of the second fundamental form \(B\) to \(H(M)\) satisfies \[ \| B|_{H \times H}\| ^2 = 2n. \] Finally, the author proves that if \(\varphi\) from a CR manifold \((M^{2n+1}, g_\theta)\) into the complex projective space \(({\mathbb P}^{n+1}(c), h, J)\) of holomorphic sectional curvature \(c>0\), and the pseudo mean curvature is pseudo parallel, but not pseudo harmonic, then \(\varphi\) is pseudo biharmonic if and only if one of the following holds: (1) \(J(d\varphi(T))\) is tangent to \(\varphi(M)\) and \(\| B_\varphi|_{H\times H}\|^2 = \frac{c}{4}(2n+3)\). (2) \(J(d\varphi(T))\) is normal to \(\varphi(M)\) and \(\| B_\varphi|_{H\times H}\|^2 = \frac{c}{4}(2n) = \frac{n}{2}c\).