The construction of harmonic maps into complex Grassmannians (Q1073409)

The authors study conformal harmonic maps (i.e. branched minimal immersions) from a Riemann surface, in particular the Riemann sphere \(S^ 2\), into a complex Grassmannian manifold, \(G_ k({\mathbb{C}}^ n)\), of complex k-planes in \({\mathbb{C}}^ n\). By developing a powerful technique of ''diagrams'' introduced by \textit{S. M. Salamon} [''Minimal surfaces and symmetric spaces'', in Differential Geometry, Res. Notes Math. 131, 103-114 (1985)] they give: (1) an alternative formulation and proof of a result of \textit{S.-S. Chern} and \textit{J. Wolfson} [''Harmonic maps of \(S^ 2\) into a complex Grassmann manifolds. I.'': Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 82, 2217-2219 (1985); II, preprint] which asserts that any harmonic map from \(S^ 2\) into \(G_ 2({\mathbb{C}}^ n)\) can be obtained essentially from (anti-) holomorphic maps by successive ''replacements'' of line subbundles; (2) an extension of this result to \(G_ k({\mathbb{C}}^ n)\) for \(k=3,4,5;\) (3) a simple description of all harmonic maps of degree 0 or \(\pm 1\) from \(S^ 2\) to \(G_ 2({\mathbb{C}}^ 2)\) and of certain harmonic maps from \(S^ 2\) and the 2-torus to \(G_ 2({\mathbb{C}}^ n)\) which leads to a more explicit version of a theorem of \textit{A. R. Aithal} on harmonic maps of \(S^ 2\) to quaternionic projective space [''Harmonic maps of \(S^ 2\) to \({\mathbb{H}}P^ 2\)'', Osaka J. Math. (to appear)]; (4) some extensions of results of \textit{J. Ramanathan} [J. Differ. Geom. 19, 207-219 (1984; Zbl 0546.58019)] and \textit{A. R. Aithal} [''Harmonic maps from \(S^ 2\) to \(G_ 2({\mathbb{C}}^ 5)\)'', J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 32, 572-576 (1985)] to surfaces of higher genus.