Global regularity of wave maps from \(\mathbb{R}^{3+1}\) to surfaces (Q1416904)

Let \((M,g)\) be a Riemannian manifold. A wave map \(u:{\mathbb R}^{n+1}\to M\), \(n\geq 2\), is a solution of the Euler-Lagrange equations associated with the functional \(u\to \int_{{\mathbb R}^{n+1}}\langle\partial_\alpha u,\partial^\alpha u\rangle \,d\sigma\), where \(d\sigma\) denotes the volume measure on \({\mathbb R}^{n+1}\). Recently, \textit{T. Tao} [Commun. Math. Phys. 224, 443--544 (2001; Zbl 1020.35046)] proved the global regularity in the case of wave maps to the sphere. Afterwards, \textit{S. Klainerman} and \textit{I. Rodnianski} [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2001, No. 13, 655--677 (2001; Zbl 0985.58009)] extended this result to wave maps from \({\mathbb R}^{n+1}\), \(n\geq 5\), to more general and in particular noncompact targets. In the paper under review, the author considers wave maps from \({\mathbb R}^{3+1}\) to certain 2-dimensional Riemannian manifolds. Inspired by the above mentioned paper of Tao, a sort of gauge change estimate is proved. It is shown that such wave maps stay smooth globally in time. This result certainly extends to higher dimensional targets satisfying similar constraints as the 2-dimensional ones investigated in the present paper.