Neck analysis for biharmonic maps (Q303787)

Let \((N, h)\) be a closed Riemannian manifold which is embedded in \({\mathbb R}^K\). A map \(u : \Omega \subset {\mathbb R}^4 \to N\subset {\mathbb R}^K\) is called \textit{biharmonic} if it is a critical point for the functional which is given by the square norm of tension field. In this paper, the authors study the neck analysis in the blow-up of a sequence of biharmonic maps in dimension four. They consider a sequence of smooth biharmonic maps \(\{u_i\}\) with bounded \(W^{2,2}\) norm in the critical dimension. It is well-known that there exist a weak limit \(u_\infty\) from \(\Omega\) to \(N\) and finitely many bubble maps \(\omega_i : {\mathbb R}^4\to N\). In this paper, the authors give an affirmative answer for the question whether the image of the weak limit and the bubble maps are connected or not. More precisely, let \(\{u_i\}\) be a sequence of biharmonic maps from the unit ball \(B^4\) in \({\mathbb R}^4\) to \(M\) with bounded \(W^{2,2}\) norm. Assume that there is a sequence of positive \(\lambda_i \to 0\) such that \(u_i(\lambda_i x) \to \omega\) on any compact set \(K \subset {\mathbb R}^4\). Under these situations, the author prove that if \(u_i\) converges weakly in \(W^{2,2}\) to \(u_\infty\) and \(\omega\) is the only bubble, then \[ \lim_{\delta \to 0} \lim_{R\to \infty}\lim_{i\to \infty} {\text{osc}_{B_{\delta}(0)\setminus B_{\lambda_i R}(0)}} u_i = 0. \] As a corollary, the authors recover well-known results in [5, 7, 21, 22] (see the bibliography of the paper) which says that, under the same hypotheses, \[ \lim_{\delta \to 0} \lim_{R\to \infty}\lim_{i\to \infty} \int_{B_{\delta}\setminus B_{\lambda_i R}} |\nabla^2 u_i|^2 + |\nabla u_i|^4 = 0. \] Also, as byproduct, the authors obtain a new proof of the removable singularity which states that if \(u\) is a smooth biharmonic map on \(B_1\setminus \{0\}\) with bounded \(W^{2,2}\), then \(u\) can be extended to a smooth biharmonic map on \(B_1\).