On the bi-harmonic maps with potential (Q683428)

Harmonic maps with potential were introduced by \textit{A. Ratto} in [Suppl. Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo, II. Ser. 49, 229--242 (1997; Zbl 0910.58011)]. A harmonic map with a potential \(H\) is a map \(\phi: (M, g)\longrightarrow (N, h)\) between Riemannian manifolds which is a critical point of the functional \( E_H(\phi)= \frac{1}{2}\int_M[|d \phi|^2-2H(\phi)]dv_g, \) where \(H: N\longrightarrow \mathbb{R}\) is a smooth function called the potential. A harmonic map with potential \(H\) solves the PDEs: \(\tau_H(\phi):=\tau(\phi)+(\text{grad}^N H)\circ \phi\equiv 0\), where \(\tau(\phi)\) is the tension field of the map \(\phi\). So, harmonic maps with constant potential are simply the usual harmonic maps. The paper under review studies biharmonic maps with potential which are defined to be the critical points of the functional \(E_{2,H}(\phi)= \frac{1}{2}\int_M |\tau_H(\phi)|^2 dv_g\). The main result of the paper proves that a map between Riemannian manifolds is a biharmonic map with potential \(H\) if and only if \[ \tau_{2, H}(\phi):=-\text{Tr}_g[(\nabla^{\phi})^2\tau_{H}(\phi)+\text{R}^N(\tau_H(\phi), \text{d}\phi) \text{d}\phi]-\left( \nabla^N_{\tau_H(\phi)}\text{grad} H\right)\circ \phi\equiv 0. \] A condition and an example of the fact that a harmonic map into a Euclidean space is a biharmonic map with potential are given.