Pseudo-harmonic maps from complete noncompact pseudo-Hermitian manifolds to regular balls (Q2658951)

The authors provide an estimate of the sub-Laplacian of Riemannian distance functions in pseudo-Hermitian geometry, which plays a similar role as the Laplacian comparison theorem in Riemannian geometry. They deduce a prior horizontal gradient estimate of pseudo-harmonic maps from pseudo-Hermitian manifolds to regular balls of Riemannian manifolds. As an application, a Liouville-type theorem is established under the conditions of nonnegative pseudo-Hermitian Ricci curvature and vanishing pseudo-Hermitian torsion. Moreover, the authors obtain the existence of pseudo-harmonic maps from complete noncompact pseudo-Hermitian manifolds to regular balls of Riemannian manifolds.