No label defined (Q4938333)

In many cases, a sequence of harmonic maps contains a subsequence which converges to a limit point. But it is difficult to keep track of how topology changes during the limit process, though it is simply a union of smooth harmonic maps. This paper makes new observations on the compactness for two-dimensional harmonic maps. Let \(\Sigma\) be a stable curve of genus \(g\) and \(M\) a smooth Riemann surface. Denoting by \(\overline{\mathcal M}_g\) the moduli space of all such \(\Sigma\), a stratified Riemann surface \(T\) of \(\Sigma\) is defined as the union of smooth compact Riemann surfaces \(\Sigma_1, \Sigma_2,\dots, \Sigma_k\). Suppose that \(T_n\) are stratified surfaces associated to \(\Sigma_n\in \overline{\mathcal M}_g\) for \(n= 1,2,\dots,\infty\), that converge to some stable curve \(\Sigma_\infty\) in \(\overline{\mathcal M}_g\). Suppose also that \(\{U_n\}\) is a sequence of energy minimizing harmonic nodal maps from \(T_n\) to \(M\), in the same homotopy class, whose energy is uniformly bounded from above. Then, a subsequence of \(\{U_n\}\) converges to an energy minimizing harmonic map from \(T_n\) to \(M\) in the Hausdorff distance. The geodesics from the unstable components are trivial. As a result of this fact it can be proven that for any fixed genus \(g\) and homotopy class \(a\), there is a minimizing harmonic nodal map into \(M\), which as expected, is conformal. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0927.00036].