Nonexistence of stable \(F\)-stationary maps of a functional related to pullback metrics (Q2404503)

Let \(F: [0, \infty) \to [0, \infty)\) be a \(C^2\)-function such that \(F(0) = 0\) and \(F'(t) > 0\) on \((0, \infty)\). For a smooth map \(u: (M^n, g) \to (N^m,h)\) between compact Riemannian manifolds, following \textit{M. Ara} [Kodai Math. J. 22, No. 2, 243--263 (1999; Zbl 0941.58010)] for an \(F\)-harmonic map, \textit{S. Asserda} in [Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl., Ser. A, Theory Methods 75, No. 8, 3480--3492 (2012; Zbl 1239.58006)] gave a notion of \(F\)-stationary map. Namey a smooth map \(u: (M^n, g) \to (N^m,h)\) is called an \(F\)-stationary map if it is a critical point of the functional \[ \Phi_F(u) = \int_M F\left(\frac{\| u^*h\|}{4}\right)\, dv_g. \] An \(F\)-stationary map \(u: (M^n, g) \to (N^m,h)\) is stable if the second variation for the functional \(\Phi_F(u)\) is nonnegative. In this paper, the authors prove nonexistence of stable \(F\)-stationary maps of the functional \(\Phi_F(u)\) from a compact convex hypersurface in Euclidean space to a compact Riemannian manifold. More precisely, let \(M\) be a compact convex hypersurface in \({\mathbb R}^{n+1}\) and assume that the principal curvatures \(\lambda_i\) of \(M^n\) satisfies \(0< \lambda_1 \leq \cdots \leq \lambda_n\) and \(3\lambda_n < \sum_{i=1}^{n-1}\lambda_j\). The authors prove that every nonconstant \(F\)-stationary map from \(M\) to any compact Riemannian manifold \(N\) is unstable if there exists a constant \(c_F = \inf \{c\geq 0\,|\, F'(t) /t^c \,\, \text{is nonincreasing}\}\) such that \[ c_F < \frac{1}{4\lambda_n^2}\min_{1 \leq i \leq n} \left\{\lambda_i \left(\sum_{k=1}^n \lambda_k - 2\lambda_i - 2\lambda_n\right)\right\} \] or when \(F''(t) = F'(t)\), \[ \| u^*h\|^2 < \frac{1}{\lambda_n^2}\min_{1 \leq i \leq n} \left\{\lambda_i \left(\sum_{k=1}^n \lambda_k - 2\lambda_i - 2\lambda_n\right)\right\}. \] As a corollary, they show that if \(u: S^n \to N\) is a nonconstant \(F\)-stationary map with \(n >4\), and if \(c_F < \frac{n}{4}-1\) or \(\| u^*h\|^2 < n-4\), then \(u\) is unstable. The authors also show that the converse of the result holds.