Compactness results for sequences of approximate biharmonic maps (Q2352723)

Extrinsically biharmonic maps \(u:M\to N\) are critical points of \(\int_M|\Delta u|^2\,dx\), while intrinsically biharmonic maps are critical for \(\int_M|\tau(u)|^2\,dx\), where \(\tau(u)\) is the projection of \(\Delta u\) to \(T_uN\), and \(N\subset{\mathbb R}^n\) for some \(n\in{\mathbb N}\). For both variants, given a function \(f\in L\log L(B^4,{\mathbb R}^n)\), a mapping \(u\in W^{2,2}(B^4,N)\) is called an \(f\)-approximate biharmonic map if it solves the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation with the right-hand side \(0\) replaced by \(f\). The authors prove that any sequence of \(f_k\)-approximate biharmonic maps \(u_k:B^4\to S^{n-1}\) with \(f_k\) bounded in \(L\log L\) and \(u_k\) bounded in \(W^{2,2}\cap W^{1,4}\) has a weakly convergent subsequence for which the energies \(\int|D^2u|^2\,dx\) and \(\int|Du|^4\,dx\) concentrate at most at finitely many points. The energy loss is completely accounted for by the energies of bubbles, biharmonic maps \({\mathbb R}^4\to S^{n-1}\), that seperate. Moreover, if the \(f_k\) do not concentrate in \(L\log L\)-norm, then the bubbling also has the ``no-neck property''.