Liouville theorems for \(f\)-harmonic maps into Hadamard spaces (Q2398627)

A triple \((M,g,\text{e}^{-f}\text{d}V_g)\) is called \textit{weighted Riemannian manifold}, if \((M,g)\) is a Riemannian manifold, \(\text{d}V_g\) its Riemannian volume element, and \(f\) is a smooth positive function on \(M\). A function \(u\in W_{\mathrm{loc}}^{1,2}(M)\) is called \textit{\(f\)-harmonic}, if \(\Delta_f u=0\) in the weak sense, that is, \[ \int_M \langle\nabla u,\nabla\varphi\rangle\text{e}^{-f}\text{d}V_g=0 \] for every positive smooth function \(\varphi\) with compact support on \(M\). Here, \(\Delta_f:=\Delta-\nabla f\cdot\nabla\) is the so-called \(f\)-Laplacian. In the beginning, the authors present Liouville-type theorems for \(f\)-harmonic functions as results of an \(L^p\) Liouville-type theorem for strongly local regular Dirichlet forms (Theorem 1 in [\textit{K.-Th. Sturm}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 456, 173--196 (1994; Zbl 0806.53041)]). They continue by reproving older Liouville-type theorems on modified Riemannian manifolds and Gaussian spaces using their results in the weighted manifold setting. Next, the authors consider maps \(u:M\rightarrow Y\), where \(Y\) is a so-called Hadamard space (see, e.g., [\textit{D. Burago} et al., A course in metric geometry. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2001; Zbl 0981.51016)]). Such a map \(u\) is called \textit{\(f\)-harmonic}, if it is a local minimizer of the ``\(f\)-energy'' functional \[ E^f(v)=\int_M |\nabla v|^2\text{e}^{-f}\text{d}V_g \] for \(v\in W_{\mathrm{loc}}^{1,2}(M,Y)\), where \(|\nabla v|^2\) is the so-called energy density function (see [\textit{N. J. Korevaar} and \textit{R. M. Schoen}, Comm. Anal. Geom. 1, No. 4, 561--659 (1993; Zbl 0862.58004)]). The authors prove the following Kendall-type theorem: If every bounded \(f\)-harmonic function on a complete weighted Riemannian manifold \((M,g,\text{e}^{-f}\text{d}V_g)\) is constant, then every \(f\)-harmonic map from \(M\) to a locally compact Hadamard space having bounded image is constant. Their main result reads as follows: If every \(f\)-harmonic function with finite \(f\)-energy on a complete noncompact weighted Riemannian manifold \((M,g,\text{e}^{-f}\text{d}V_g)\) is bounded, then every \(f\)-harmonic map from \(M\) to a Hadamard space having finite \(f\)-energy has bounded image. As a consequence, under the additional conditions of the previous theorem, such an \(f\)-harmonic map is constant.