Explicit construction of harmonic two-spheres into the complex Grassmannian (Q455632)

Let \(\phi : M^2 \to {\mathbb U}(n)\) be a harmonic map from a Riemann surface into the unitary group. There is a spectral deformation, called the extended solution, that is a family of maps \(\phi_\lambda : M^2 \to {\mathbb U}(n)\), depending smoothly on \(\lambda \in S^1\), such that \(\phi = Q \phi_{-1}\) for some \(Q \in {\mathbb U}(n)\). The extended solution extends to a family of maps \(\Phi_\lambda : M^2 \to \mathfrak{gl}(n, {\mathbb C})\) into the Lie algebra of \(n\times n\) complex matrices, where \(\Phi_\lambda\) is a holomorphic function of \(\lambda \in {\mathbb C}\setminus\{0\}\). Thus it can be expanded as a Laurent series. A harmonic map \(\phi : M^2 \to {\mathbb U}(n)\) is said to be of finite uniton number if \(\Phi_\lambda\) has a polynomial extended solution, and the uniton number of \(\phi\) is the least degree of all its polynomial extended solutions. On the other hand, it is well-known that the complex Grassmannian sits naturally in the unitary group \({\mathbb U}(n)\) equipped with its standard bi-invariant metric, via its Cartan geodesic embedding. In this paper, the authors present an explicit description of all harmonic maps of finite uniton number from a Riemann surface into a complex Grassmannian. Namely, starting from a constant map \(Q\) and a collection of meromorphic functions and their derivatives, they show how to construct algebraically all harmonic maps from the two-sphere into a given Grassmannian \(G_p({\mathbb C}^n)\). The authors also show that, in this setting, the uniton number depends on \(Q\) and \(p\), and they obtain a sharp estimate for it.