Higher-power harmonic maps and sections (Q2097203)

Motivated by the Skyrmion model for the nucleus, the authors consider ``higher'' energies leading to higher harmonic maps between Riemannian manifolds, and more generally, sections of submersions (not necessarily Riemannian submersions) of Riemannian manifolds. These higher energies are essentially the energies associated to higher coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of a matrix. In particular, the highest such energy corresponds to (akin to the energy-length correspondence for geodesics) volume-deformation. The Euler-Lagrange equations are derived and consequences are explored (but not the analytic aspects of existence, uniqueness, blow-up, etc). The paper is also furnished with examples arising primarily from Lie groups.