Existence and Liouville theorems for \(V\)-harmonic maps from complete manifolds (Q694721)

A mapping between Riemannian manifolds \(M\) and \(X\) is, for a given vector filed \(V\) on \(M\), a solution of \(\tau(u)+du(V)=0\). Here, \(\tau(u)\) is the tension field of \(u\), and since \(\tau(u)=0\) is the harmonic map equation, \(V\)-harmonic maps generalize the notion of harmonic maps. The geometric significance of that generalization is due to the fact that it includes interesting special cases, like Hermitian harmonic maps, Weyl harmonic maps, affine harmonic maps, and harmonic maps from Finsler to Riemannian manifolds. In this article, the authors prove existence of \(V\)-harmonic maps from complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds by the compact exhaustion method. The target is first assumed to be complete and of nonpositive sectional curvature; and still, some more conditions must be satisfied. The difficulty is that the system is not of divergence type, and there is, in general, no variational structure behind the problem. Even more care is necessary if the target has its sectional curvature only bounded by a positive constant. Here, the authors prove a Liouville type theorem and a \(V\)-Laplacian comparison theorem, as well as again an existence theorem, using gradient estimates.