Doubling annulus Pohožaev type identity and applications to approximate biharmonic maps (Q6140834)

Let \((M, g)\) be a smooth Riemannian 4-manifold and \((N, h)\) a compact smooth Riemannian manifold which is isometrically embedded in some Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^K(i : (N,h) \to \mathbb{R}^k)\). Consider the following functional for a map \(u\) from \((M, g)\) to \((N, h),\) \[ H(u)=\frac{1}{4}\int_{M}|\Delta_g u|^2dV_g. \] Critical points of \(H(u)\) are called extrinsic biharmonic maps from \(M\) to \(N\). The corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation is \[ \Delta^2_g u = \Delta_g(B(u)(\nabla_g,\nabla_g))+2\nabla_g\cdot \langle \Delta_g u,\Delta_g (P(u))\rangle -\langle \Delta_g (P(u)),\Delta_g u\rangle :=F_E(u).\tag{1} \] Here \(B(\cdot,\cdot)\) is the second fundamental form of \(i\) and \(P(u)\) is the projection to the tangent space \(T_uN.\) The associated heat flow for the functional \(H(u)\) is the following extrinsic biharmonic map heat flow \[ \begin{cases} \partial_tu+\Delta^2_g u=F_E(u)&\text{ in } M\times\{t>0\},\\ u(0)=u_0&\text{ on } M\times\{t>0\}. \end{cases} \tag{2} \] The authors derive a refined doubling annulus Pohozaev-type identity for approximate extrinsic biharmonic maps from a general Riemannian 4-manifold into a compact Riemannian manifold. As applications, they show a compactness result modular finitely many bubbles for a sequence of such maps with finite biharmonic energy and with tension fields uniformly bounded in \(L^p\) for some \(p\geq\frac{8}{7}\). Also, the convergence behavior and the existence of finite time singularities of the biharmonic map heat flow from a general Riemannian 4-manifold into a compact Riemannian manifold are derived.