Conformal deformation, biharmonic and triharmonic maps (Q2140932)

The paper discusses bi- and triharmonic mappings \((M,g)\to(N,h)\) between Riemannian manifolds, with focus on the effect of a conformal change of metrics, replacing \(g\) by \(e^{2\gamma}g\) given some function \(\gamma\) on \(M\). In a first theorem, the relation between the bi-tension fields of mappings with respect to \(g\) and \(e^{2\gamma}g\) is calculated. A similar aim is approached for the tri-tension field characterizing triharmonic maps, but this time only in situations that either essentially depend on one variable, or where the mapping considered is the identity \((M,e^{2\gamma}g)\to(M,g)\). The calculations are illustrated with many examples. The examples include biharmonic maps that are not harmonic, as well as triharmonic maps that are not biharmonic.