Curvature estimates for irreducible symmetric spaces (Q2431995)

Using the classification of real simple Lie algebras the author finds the maximum of squared length of restricted roots and thus gets upper bounds of the sectional curvature for irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces of compact type. It was conjectured by \textit{J.~H.~Sampson} [Symp. Math. 26, 197--210 (1982; Zbl 0489.58010)] that any harmonic map with finite energy from a complete simply connected Riemannian manifold with nonpositive sectional curvature whose dimension exceeds 2 must be constant. As an application, the author verifies Sampson's conjecture in most cases for irreducible Riemannian symmetric spaces of noncompact type.