A construction of conformal-harmonic maps (Q694689)

Conformal-harmonic maps are a variant of (intrinsically) biharmonic maps. Although the bi-energy functional for mappings between manifolds, which is the squared \(L^2\)-norm of the tension field, is not conformally invariant, it does have a modification by lower-order terms that is, if the domain is \(4\)-dimensional. This was proposed by \textit{V. Bérard} [C. R., Math., Acad. Sci. Paris 346, No. 17-18, 985--988 (2008; Zbl 1149.58008)]. Critical points of the conformally invariant functional are called (quite confusingly) conformal-harmonic maps. In the current paper, the authors use the heat-flow method to prove existence of a smooth conformal-harmonic map in every homotopy class, provided that the target manifold has non-positive sectional curvature and that the Yamabe number is positive and the total \(Q\)-curvature is not too small in terms of the Yamabe number. The proof depends on showing long-time existence for the flow, which is performed by using arguments from \textit{T. Lamm} [Calc.\ Var.\ Partial Differ.\ Equ.\ 22, No.\ 4, 421--445 (2005; Zbl 1070.58017)].