\(p\)-harmonic maps to \(S^1\) and stationary varifolds of codimension two (Q2217792)

This interesting paper takes up a thread that Hardt and Lin started in [\textit{R. Hardt} and \textit{F. Lin}, Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 40, No. 5, 555--588 (1987; Zbl 0646.49007)]. The limit of a sequence of minimizing or stationary \(p_i\)-harmonic maps to \(S^1\) as \(p_i\nearrow 2\) should be a harmonic map, except at points where energy concentrates locally in a way that would prevent the limit from being a \(W^{1,2}\)-mapping. Hardt and Lin studied the problem on \(2\)-dimensional domains, where the energy concentration occurs in finitely many points. In the current paper, the author considers sequences of stationary \(p_i\)-harmonic maps from an arbitrary closed, oriented manifold \(M\) to the circle. Assuming that the integrals of the normalized energy measures \((2-p_i)|du_i|^{p_i}\,dx\) are bounded, the limit of these measures is of the form \(\|V\|+|h|^2\,dx\), where \(h\) is a harmonic one-form, and \(V\) is a stationary, rectifiable \((n-2)\)-varifold with support given by the Hausdorff limit of the singular sets of the \(u_i\). Moreover, the density of the varifold is \(\ge2\pi\) on the support of \(\|V\|\). If the \(du_i\) are also bounded in \(L^1\), then, away from the support of \(\|V\|\), the \(u_i\) converge to a limit map which is harmonic. Moreover, the author proves an integrality theorem asserting that the density of the varifold is a multiple of \(2\pi\) everywhere on its support if the domain is the two-dimensional disk. Finally, he demonstrates that sequences like the ones considered here can be obtained naturally by variational methods. The situation described here strongly resembles corresponding results for the limits of minimizers of the Ginzburg-Landau functionals \(E_\varepsilon\) as \(\varepsilon\searrow0\). The author keeps pointing out, however, that the problem for \(p_i\)-harmonic maps allows using simpler and cleaner tools locally, thus there may be hope that the studies here help in understanding Ginzburg-Landau better.