Harmonic two-spheres in complex projective space and some open problems (Q1189283)

This paper provides a readable (i.e., suitable for non-specialists) account of the basic facts concerning the construction of harmonic 2- spheres in \(\mathbb{C} P^ n\). The framework is that of complex (in particular, Kähler) manifolds, fibre bundles and global analysis. However, it should be mentioned that this theory finds motivation and background in physics (the terminology there being centered about the following keywords: non-linear sigma models, chiral models). The main idea is the following: harmonic maps (i.e., the general solutions for a certain field theory) can be built up from simpler solutions, namely the instanton solutions (i.e., holomorphic maps). The paper explains this construction and states some related open problems. (In particular, the theory is not much understood in its aspects related to calculus of variations and Morse theory for the energy functional).