Harmonic unit normal sections of Grassmannians associated with cross products (Q6160095)

Let \(G (k, n)\) be the Grassmannian of oriented \(k\)-dimensional subspaces of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) endowed with the canonical symmetric Riemannian metric. Let \[ E_{k,n}=\{ (P,v)\in G(k,n)\times\mathbb{R}^n:\ v\ \mbox{is orthogonal to}\ P\} \] be the total space of the canonical vector bundle \(E_{k,n}\longrightarrow G(k,n)\), orthogonal to the tautological vector bundle (that with fibre \(P\) at each point \(P\)). Knowing that any \(k\)-fold vector cross product \(X:(\mathbb{R}^n)^k\longrightarrow\mathbb{R}^n\) in the sense of Brown-Gray induces naturally a section \(\sigma_X\) of the unit sphere bundle \(E^1_{k,n}\longrightarrow G (k, n)\), the first theorem in the paper asserts the following: The unit sections of the sphere bundles \(E^1_{k,n}\longrightarrow G(k, n)\) associated with \(k\)-fold vector cross products are harmonic maps. On a second part, the authors treat the case of the vector bundle of skew-symmetric linear operators on \(\mathbb{R}^8\), the orthogonal Lie algebra bundle \[ E =\{ (P, T ) :\ P \in G (2, 8)\ \mbox{and}\ T \in \mathrm{Skew}_P(\mathbb{R}^8)\} \longrightarrow G (2, 8) , \] over the Grassmanian of 2-planes. Associated with the canonical triple cross product, denoted \(X_{3,8}\), is a section \(\mathcal J\) of the unit sphere bundle of \(E\). The second Theorem then states that \(\mathcal J\) is a harmonic map into \(E^1\). The article also considers the sections \(\sigma_2\) and \(\sigma_3\) of \(E^1_{2,7}\longrightarrow G(2,7)\) and \(E^1_{3,8}\longrightarrow G(3,8)\), respectively, given by \[ \sigma_2(u\wedge v)=(u\wedge v,u\times v) ,\qquad \sigma_3(u\wedge v\wedge w)= (u\wedge v\wedge w,X_{3,8}(u,v,w)) . \] Again, \(\sigma_2,\sigma_3\) are harmonic maps. These results depart from the theory of [\textit{J. C. González-Dávila} et al., Math. Z. 261, No. 2, 409--430 (2009; Zbl 1161.53050)]. They are related with the harmonicity of the canonical almost complex structure on \(S^6\), between other.