Everywhere discontinuous harmonic maps into spheres (Q1372993)

Let \(\Omega\) be a bounded domain of \(\mathbb{R}^n\), \((\Sigma,h)\) a surface in \(\mathbb{R}^k\) homeomorphic to a sphere \(S^2\) with a metric \(h\) and \(H^1(\Omega,\Sigma)\) denote the Sobolev space of maps from \(\Omega\) to \(\Sigma\). Weakly harmonic maps from \(\Omega\) to \(\Sigma\) are critical points in \(H^1(\Omega,\Sigma)\) of the Dirichlet energy \(E(u)=\int_{\Omega}| \nabla u| ^2\). For weakly harmonic maps the set Sing\((u)\), which is the complement of the largest open set where \(u\) is \(C^\infty\), coincides with the set where \(u\) is discontinuous. The main result of the article under review is that ``for any given non-constant boundary condition \(\phi\in C^{\infty}(\partial B^3,\Sigma)\) there exists a weakly harmonic map from \(B^3\) into \(\Sigma\) taking value \(\phi\) on the boundary and such that Sing\((u)\) coincides with the closed ball \(B^3\).'' The author also suggests an interesting conjecture based on a previous article that for a surface \(\Sigma\) non-homeomorphic to a sphere and such that \(\pi_2(\Sigma)=0\) the lack of topological obstruction could imply regularity for weakly harmonic maps.