Pseudoharmonic maps and vector fields on \(CR\) manifolds (Q2270228)

Let \((M, T^{1,0} M, \vartheta)\) be a compact, strictly pseudoconvex, \((2n + 1)\)-dimensional pseudo-Hermitian manifold of CR dimension \(n\) and \(\phi: M \longrightarrow S\) a smooth map into a \(\nu\)-dimensional Riemannian manifold \((S, h)\). The map \(\phi\) is called \textit{pseudo-harmonic} if it is a critical point for a certain energy functional \(E(\psi)\) on the smooth maps \(\psi: M \to S\), which is an analogue of the usual energy functional between Riemannian manifolds. Similarly, considering a suitable pseudo-Hermitian analogue of the total-bending functional on vector fields of Riemannian manifolds, one has the notion of \textit{pseudo-harmonic vector fields} on \(M\), i.e., of the vector fields which are critical points w.r.t. to such functionals. In this paper the authors give several results on pseudo-harmonic maps and pseudo-harmonic vector fields. In particular: a) they give conditions that imply the pseudo-harmonicity for the boundary values maps of the harmonic maps between a strictly pseudoconvex domain \(B\), endowed with the Bergmann metric, and a Riemannian manifold \(S\); b) they determine a system of differential equations, which characterizes pseudoharmonic maps into submanifolds \(S \subset \mathbb R^n\) of the Euclidean space; c) they show that the image of pseudoharmonic maps into a sphere either meets or links any geodesic submanifold of codimension two; d) they show that the energy functional on vector fields of \((M, T^{1,0} M, \vartheta)\) (considered as maps from \(M\) into the tangent space \(TM\), endowed with a suitable Riemannian metric) is unbounded from above; e) they determine the first and second variation formulae for the energy functional and the pseudo-Hermitian total-bending functional on the vector fields on \((M, T^{1,0} M, \vartheta)\).