Harmonic diffeomorphisms between domains in the Euclidean 2-sphere (Q2448619)

Summary: We study the existence or non-existence of harmonic diffeomorphisms between certain domains in the Euclidean 2-sphere. In particular, we show the existence of harmonic diffeomorphisms from circular domains in the complex plane onto finitely punctured spheres, with at least two punctures. This result follows from a general existence theorem for maximal graphs in the Lorentzian product \(\mathbb{M}\times\mathbb{R}_1\), where \(\mathbb{M}\) is an arbitrary \(\mathfrak{n}\)-dimensional compact Riemannian manifold, \(\mathfrak{n}\geq 2\). In contrast, we show that there is no harmonic diffeomorphism from the unit complex disc onto the once-punctured sphere and no harmonic diffeomeorphisms from finitely punctured spheres onto circular domains in the Euclidean 2-sphere.