Existence and non-existence results of \(H\)-surfaces into 3-dimensional Riemannian manifolds (Q1922780)

Let \(\Sigma\) be a two-dimensional closed Riemannian manifold and \(N\) a three-dimensional closed Riemannian manifold. For a smooth 3-form \(\alpha\) on \(N\), the mean curvature tensor \(H\) is defined by \[ \alpha_p(X,Y,Z):=\langle X,H(p)(Y,Z)\rangle \] for \(p\in N\), \(X,Y,Z\in T_pN\). A map \(u\in C^2(\Sigma,N)\) is called an \(H\)-surface of \(\Sigma\) into \(N\), if it satisfies \[ \text{trace}(\nabla du)=2H(u)(\nabla u\wedge \nabla u) \] where \[ H(u)(\nabla u\wedge \nabla u):=\sigma^{-2}H(u)\left(u_*\left({\partial \over \partial x_1}\right), u_*\left({\partial\over \partial x_2}\right)\right), \] \(z=x_1+ix_2\) denoting isothermal coordinates in which the metric tensor of \(\Sigma\) takes the form \(\sigma^2((dx_1)^2+(dx_2)^2)\). By using variational methods, sufficient conditions for the existence of generalized \(H\)-surfaces in the case of negatively curved targets are discussed. If \(N\) is a flat 3-torus, then a nonexistence result is obtained.